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52d Congress, } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. j Mis. Doc 

1st Session. f ) No. 320. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



WILLIAM H. F. LEE, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM VIRGINIA,) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



House of Representatives and in the Senate, 



FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON : 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

i Sg 2 






Resolved by the House of Representatives {the Senate concurring), That there be 
printed of the eulogies delivered in Congress upon the Hon. W. H. F. Lee, late a 
Representative from the State of Virginia, eight thousand copies, of which number 
two thousand copies shall be delivered to the Senators and Representatives of the 
State of Virginia, which shall include fifty copies to be bound in full morocco, to be 
delivered to the family of the deceased, and of those remaining two thousand shall 
be for the use of the Senate and four thousand for the use of the House of Represent- 
atives ; and the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to have engraved and printed a 
portrait of the said W. H. F. Lee to accompany the said eulogies. 

Agreed to i« the House of Representatives March 23, 1892. 

Agreed to in the Senate March 22, 1892. 
2 



* D. 01 D. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF DEATH. 



December 23, 1891. 

Mr. Meredith, of Virginia: Mr. Speaker, I rise to make 
the painful announcement to the House of the death of Hon. 
William H. F. Lee, a Representative in the Fiftieth and 
Fifty-first Congresses of the United States and a Representa- 
tive-elect to the Fifty-second Congress. 

He died at his home, in Fairfax County, Va., on the 15th day 
of October last, after a lingering illness. Later in the session 
I shall ask this House to fix a day when his colleagues and 
friends can do justice to his memory and express their appre- 
ciation of his high character. 

It is only meet and fitting on this occasion that I should say 
that in the death of Gen. L-EE the State of Virginia has lost 
the services of one of her most chivalrous and noble sons, and 
the district he so well represented a faithful guardian of the 
interests of all its people. 

3 



4 Proceedings in the House of Representatives. 

I send to the desk and ask the adoption of these resolutions: 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with deep regret and profound sorrow of the 
death of Hon. W. H. F. Lee, a Representative from the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of these resolutions to 
the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

And accordingly (at 12 o'clock and 37 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until Tuesday, the 5th day of January next. 



EULOGIES. 



February 6, 1892. 
The Speaker. The Clerk will report the special order. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That Saturday, February 6, beginning at i o'clock afternoon, be set apart 
for paying tribute to the memory of Hon. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, late a 
member of the House of Representatives from the Eighth district of the State of Vir- 
ginia. 

Mr. Meredith. Mr. Speaker, I offer the resolutions which 
I send to the desk. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, that opportunity be 
given for tributes to the memory of Hon. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, late a 
Representative from the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, As a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, and in recog- 
nition of his eminent ability and distinguished public services, that the House, at the 
conclusion of these memorial proceedings, shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

The resolutions were adopted. 



Address of Mr. Meredith, of Virginia, on the 



Address of Mr. Meredith, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: This day having been set apart for the pur- 
pose of paying a last tribute to the memory of one who so lately 
was a loved and honored member of this House, I shall, in the 
brief remarks which I propose to make, attempt nothing but a 
plain and truthful narrative of some of the characteristics and 
public services of a Christian gentleman, who in my judgment 
measured fully up to that standard which makes man the 
noblest work of God. 

On the 15th day of October, 1891, at Ravensworth, his beau- 
tiful home in Fairfax County, Va. , surrounded by those loved 
ones whose constant care and tender nursing had done all that 
human power could do to stay the hand of the fell Destroyer, 
all that was mortal of Hon. William Henry Fitzhugh L,EE 
passed from this earth, and his noble spirit returned to the God 
who gave it. 

If the earnest supplications to Almighty God, offered by the 
good people of his native State upon their bended knees night 
and morning, during the period of his lingering illness, could 
have availed, he would have been restored to health and use- 
fulness, and these melancholy proceedings postponed for many 
a long year. 

The great sorrow which made the heart of Virginia heavy 
and bowed in grief the heads of her true sons and daughters 
when the sad intelligence of his death was flashed over the elec- 
tric wires was more genuinely spontaneous than were the loud 
lamentations of the Roman populace (so graphically described 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 7 

by Tacitus) when they beheld the widow of Germanieus, with 
her weeping children entering the gates of the imperial city. 
Nor was this sorrow confined to those of his own political 
faith. Men of all parties vied with each other in their ex- 
pressions of regret at his death and in their sympathy for his 
bereaved family. 

The blameless life he had led, his high character, his gentle 
and unassuming manners, won for him not only the respect but 
the admiration of all with whom he came in contact. 

As gentle as a child and as tender as a woman, with the 
courage of a hero and a faith that never faltered, he proved 
himself a worthy descendant of that race of famous men from 
whom he sprang, and most worthily bore a name which will 
be honored as long as a liberty-loving people shall find a dwell- 
ing place upon the earth. 

William H. F. Lee was the son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and 
was born at Arlington, on the 31st day of May, 1837. 

He was educated at Harvard, where he ranked not only as a 
good scholar, but on account of his splendid size and strength 
became quite famous in athletics, being ' ' stroke oar ' ' of the 
University Rowing Club. 

His great ambition was to follow the profession of his father 
and to go to West Point ; but having had an older brother there, 
that fact was considered in those days an insuperable obsta- 
cle. While still at Harvard, completing his education, he was, 
through the interest taken in him by Gen. Winfield Scott, who 
made the request as a special and personal favor to himself, 
appointed in 1857 a second lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, 
United States Infantry, and inaugurated his military career by 
taking a detachment of troops to Texas by sea and then by land 
up the country to San Antonio. 



8 Address of Mr. Meredith, of J T irginia, on the 

In 1858 he accompanied his regiment, under the command of 
Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, in the expedition to Utah against 
the Mormons, taking an active part in that campaign, marching 
from Fort Leavenworth to Salt Lake City, and then, when the 
troubles were quelled there, traveling on foot to Fort Benicia, 
Cal. While on the Pacific coast he received a letter from his 
father, written January 1, 1859, in which he said: 

I can not express the gratification I felt in meeting Col. May in New York, and at 
the encomiums he passed upon your soldiership, zeal, and devotion to your duty. But I 
was more pleased at the report of your conduct. I always thought and said there was 
stuff in you for a good soldier, and I trust you will prove it 

Resigning his commission in the Army, he came home to be 
married to his cousin, a Miss Wickham, and settled down as a 
farmer at the "White House" (where Washington met Martha 
Custis and was married), a large estate on the Pamunkey River, 
left him by his maternal grandfather, G. W. Park Custis, of 
Arlington. 

When that irrepressible conflict of 1861 was upon us, and Vir- 
ginia called upon her sons to defend her soil, he, sharing the 
faith of his fathers, in the belief that his allegiance was due to 
his State, quickly raised a company of cavalry, and was attached 
to the Army of Northern Virginia. Serving in every grade suc- 
cessively from captain to major-general of cavalry, he led his 
regiment in the famous raid around McClellan's army, and was 
an active participant in all those brilliant achievements which 
made the cavalry service so proficient. 

In that terrific fight which occurred at Brandy Station, in June, 
1863, he was most severely wounded, and taken to the residence 
of Gen. William C. Wickham, in Hanover County, where he was 
made a prisoner by a raiding party, and was carried off, at the 
expense of great personal suffering, to Fort Monroe. From the 
latter place he was conveyed to Fort Lafayette, where he was 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 9 

confined until March, 1864, and treated with great severity, being 
held, with Capt. R. H. Tyler, of the Eighth Virginia Regiment* 
under sentence of death, as hostages for two Federal officers who 
were prisoners in Richmond, and whom it was thought would 
be executed for some retaliatory measure. 

Exchanged in the spring of 1864, he returned, to find his young 
wife and children dead, his beautiful home burned to the ground, 
his whole estate devastated and laid waste by the ruthless hand 
of war; and yet almost his-first act on reaching Richmond was 
to go to Libby Prison, visit the two Federal officers for whom 
he had been held as hostage, and who, like himself, had been 
under apprehension of being hung, and shake hands with and 
congratulate them. 

Immediately joining his command, he led his division in 
every engagement from the Rapidan to Appomattox, where, 
with his father, the greatest soldier of modern times, he surren- 
dered to the inevitable. 

In a letter written by one of the most brilliant cavalry gen- 
erals of the late war, in speaking of Gen. W. H. F. Lee he 
uses this language: 

He was a zealous, conscientious, brave, and intelligent soldier, who fully discharged 
all of his duties. He was one of those safe, sound, judicious officers, and you always 
felt when you sent instructions to him that they were going to be obeyed promptly and 
to the letter. r : 

What greater tribute could be paid a soldier ? 

Having been married to one of the most accomplished ladies 
in Virginia, Miss Boiling, of Petersburg (who, with two sons, 
survives him) he removed in 1874 to Ravensworth, and was 
the next year elected to the senate of Virginia, where he made 
an honorable record. 

He was elected to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses, and 
served his State with that fidelity which had characterized his 



10 Address of Air. Meredith, of Virginia, on the 

every act through life — faithful, conscientious, and painstak- 
ing — ever alert to the interests of his constituents and seeking 
only how he could serve them. 

He was again reelected to the Fifty-second Congress, and 
though by the will of Divine Providence he was not permitted 
to take his seat, he will ever be held in grateful remembrance 
by his late constituents, and when the long roll of Virginia's 
noble and heroic dead is called, the name of William H. Fitz- 
hugh LEE will be mourned by his mother Commonwealth as 
one of her noblest and truest sons. 

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I shall read, as the most fitting 
tribute I have seen, an editorial from the Alexandria Gazette 
written the day after the death of Gen. LEE: 

Gen. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, second son of Gen. Robert Edward Lee, is 
dead. The bells here tolled late yesterday evening. A few hours before the general 
had crossed over the river and was at rest under his rooftree at Ravensworth, the 
southern sun lighted his deathbed and the autumn breeze sang his requiem. After life's 
fitful fever he sleeps well. He was sick a long time, and as his disease was incurable, 
death was a relief. No more pain for him now, but the long and peaceful sleep of the 
just. His sorrowing family were at his bedside, but he told them not good-bye, pre- 
ferring to greet them when they shall rejoin him in a better world. His death is re- 
gretted by all the many who knew him; the more so by those who knew him well. 

Gen. Lee, like his father, was naturally quiet and retiring, and in his intercourse 
with others, when right and principle were not involved, invariably acted in accord- 
ance with the rule of noblesse oblige, but when they were involved he was as firm in sup- 
port of his convictions as any other man could be. He stood foursquare to all the 
winds that blow, but always with the propriety that characterizes the perfect gentleman. 
He did his duty to his God, his family, his State, and his country, and did it well, and 
executed faithfully all the trusts committed to him in both military and civil life. He 
liked the old manners and customs of Virginia, but tried to conform to the new order 
of things with becoming grace, and did so with no audible complaint and no useless 
repinings. He served his State efficiently in her senate and in the national Congress, 
and in the Confederate army he filled, by merited promotion, every position from cap- 
tain up to major-general of cavalry. It was different once, but Virginia can ill-afford 
to part with such a man now, and in his death, as in that of his illustrious father, she 
has lost a true and gallant son, who when not on duty was as gentle as a woman. 
Her fame has been increased by having had such a son. May she have many more 
like him. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 11 



Address of Mr. Edmunds, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: It is not my purpose to attempt any extended 
remarks upon the life and character of Gen. William H. F. 
Lee, late a Representative from the Eighth Congressional dis- 
trict of Virginia, yet I can not permit this occasion to pass and 
my hand and heart to fail to pay my humble tribute to his 
memory. Gen. Lee's life had been spent after manhood in 
arms or as a tiller of the soil. In early life he saw military 
service as lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States In- 
fantry, and was with Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in the expe- 
dition in 1858 against the Mormons. 

Resigning from the Army, he returned to his native State of 
Virginia and engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. Early in 
the late civil struggle he raised a cavalry company, and rose 
from the position of company commander to that of major- 
general, and followed the cause in which he had enlisted until 
the end at Appomattox. There two great military chieftains 
met, and one, his illustrious father, gave up to the other his 
sword and the mutilated remnant of an army which had fought 
with the utmost bravery and fortitude under a leader of unsur- 
passed skill and fidelity. 

Gen. LEE, after the struggle had ended, resuming his citi- 
zenship in peace, returned to his farm and occupation of agri- 
culture. 

He was elected by his people from his senatorial district 
to the legislature. He served one term in the senate of Vir- 
ginia and declined a renomination. He was afterwards elected 
from the Eighth Congressional district of his State to the Fif- 



12 Address of Mr. Edmunds, of Virginia, on the 

tieth and Fifty-first Congresses and again returned by his 
constituency to the present Congress; but the hand of death 
interposed, and he did not live to again take his seat in this 
legislative hall. 

The name of Lee, Mr. Speaker, has been an illustrious one 
in Virginia. No one can with safety challenge the assertion 
that that old Commonwealth has furnished, from the time of 
the Revolution, as many great men, in peace and in war, as 
any of the States of our Union. When the foundations of this 
great Republic were laid and constitutional principles evolved, 
whether the sword of the warrior or the mind and philosophy 
of the statesman were needed, you will find the marks and 
handiwork of some son of that State. 

Among those great men the ancestry of Gen. LEE were con- 
spicuous. He inherited from his great father a disposition 
that was frank, manly, and chivalrous. Although with these 
distinguished surroundings, Gen. LEE had no undue pride, 
reserve, or self-assertion. His nature, on the contrary, was 
eminently amiable, generous, and sympathetic, and at the same 
time he was dignified, manly, brave, and ever courteous. 

Identified with the agricultural interests of his State, at one 
time president of the State society, and himself a practical and 
successful farmer and proud of his occupation, he mingled 
freely and congenially with that great class of our citizens upon 
whose shoulders repose in great measure the preservation and 
safety of the institutions of our common country. While he 
was especially devoted to the interests of the farmer, he was 
essentially a patriot, and loved his State and all its diverse 
interests with an enthusiastic devotion and yearned for her 
prosperity. 

He was a faithful, able, and vigilant Representative, and had 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 13 

in the greatest degree the confidence of his constituents and 
the people of his entire State. No one who ever knew him 
could fail to implicitly trust him. His State has lost a pure 
and noble son; the country a wise, conservative, and faithful 
Representative. We who knew him here can recall his manly 
robust form, his genial kindly face, his frank accessible ad- 
dress, his unfailing gentleness of manner, his cheerful friendly 
voice, as he walked along the aisles of this Hall. 

A man of his character and bearing could but wield an in- 
fluence for good wherever his presence was. 

In a republic, where the people are the state, the advice, the 
suggestions, and the example of a citizen so high-minded and 
incorruptible are of great value not only in the councils of 
the nation, but in the everyday walks and details of life, in his 
beautiful rural home, surrounded by and mingling with his 
country people ; and it was ever the pleasure and practice of 
Gen. IvEE to associate freely and unrestrainedly with the great 
body of the people. His generous and noble heart had a sym- 
pathetic touch with them and their struggles, their callings, 
their work. 

But he has passed from us under the decree of the great 
Master to the great hereafter, leaving the record of a life of 
singular purity, directness of purpose, and freedom from guile; 
the record of a character unblurred, untarnished, unshadowed 
by the least stain; the record of a man high, noble, honorable, 
faithful to all the duties and relations of life. 

Mr. Speaker, Virginia, one of the oldest of the Common- 
wealths, within whose borderes lie the remains of many great 
names, and the energies and reserved forces of whose people in 
times gone by have risen to great heights, receives to her 
bosom her dead son and bows with sincere grief over his 



14 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, on the 

grave; for to her, whether her hand wore the mailed gauntlet 
or followed the gentler pursuits of peace, he had ever been 
faithful, loyal, and true. 



Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: I shall leave to others the task of portraying 
the life of Gen. L,EE in its diversified pursuits, and shall content 
myself with the effort of giving to the House my conception of 
some of the characteristics of our deceased friend which made 
him throughout his life, wherever placed, a conspicuous actor 
in private and public affairs. 

In the early period of Virginia's history lived William Ran- 
dolph, of Turkey Island (a plantation some 15 or 20 miles 
from the city of Richmond, near the scene of the terrific 
battle of Malvern Hill). He was the ancestor of all of that 
name in Virginia, and from him was descended in direct line 
Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee; the last- 
named the father of our departed friend. How could he have 
manifested in his life less patriotism, justice, and courage with 
such exemplars of these virtues ever before him? 

His mother, as is well known, was a descendant from the 
wife of Gen. Washington by her prior marriage with John 
Parke Custis. Sprung from such a lineage ; trained in a 
school where the amenities of life as well as "the humanities" 
were taught in their highest excellence, he practiced from his 
earliest childhood a scrupulous regard for the rights and feel- 
ings of others, and an indulgence to all faults except his own. 

With a self-control and equipoise which were never dis- 
turbed under the most trying circumstances, and a gracious- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 15 

ness of manner which broke down all barriers, giving to the 
humblest as well as to the highest the assurance of his friendly 
consideration, and a mind well disciplined by education in the 
highest schools, it was impossible that he could have been 
other than a man of mark and influence in his State. 

It is not claiming too much to say that Gen. LEE was the 
natural product of the civilization existing in Virginia during 
his boyhood and early manhood, which, alas, except here and 
there in certain localities, is fast passing away. The home, 
not the club, was its center; the family, not each "new-hatched, 
unfledged comrade, ' ' its unit. The father was the head of the 
family, not the joint tenant with the wife of a house nor the 
tenant at will of his wife. The wife and the mother was the 
queen of the household, not merely a housekeeper for a hus- 
band and the family. Obedience to those in authority was the 
first lesson exacted of the boy. Inculcated with tenderness, it 
was enforced with severity, if need be, until the word of the 
father or the expressed wish of the mother carried with it the 
force of law as completely as the decree of a court or t,he 
mandate of a king. 

Reverence for superiors in age and deference to all, rather 
than arrogant self-assertion, was magnified as a cardinal virtue, 
not as teaching humility and enforcing a lack of proper self- 
respect, but rather to exalt high ideals and stimulate an admira- 
tion for "the true, the beautiful, and the good." 

Fidelity to truth, the maintenance of personal honor, defer- 
ence for the opinions and feelings of others, without abating 
one's own or aggressively thrusting them on others ; a kindli- 
ness of manner to dependents, a knightly courtesy to all, but 
with special and tender regard in thought, word, and action 
toward woman, were in turn patiently taught in all the lessons 



16 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, on the 

of the fireside and at the family altar, and earnestly insisted 
upon in the formation of the character of a true gentleman. 
"Any man will be polite to a beautiful young woman, but it 
takes a gentleman to show the same respect to a homely old 
woman" was the stinging rebuke of a father to his son who 
failed to remove his hat in passing a forlorn old woman on the 
public highway. 

The old-field school, the private tutor, the high school, whose 
excellence in Virginia I can not praise too much, the college, 
the university, led the young mind by easy stages to its full 
intellectual maturity. 

Nowhere was the principle " Sana metis in sano corpore" 
more scrupulously taught than in Virginia. The rod and 
stream, the gun, the "hounds and horns," the chase, with the 
music of the pack, the bounding steed, all lent their ready aid 
in developing the physical manhood of the boy. In the pure 
atmosphere of his country home, amid its broad fields and vir- 
gin forests, contracted houses in narrow streets had no charms 
for him. To join the chase was the first promotion to which 
the boy looked as evidencing his permanent release from the 
nursery. The gun and dog became his constant companions, 
while "Old Betsey," his father's trusted double-barreled gun 
of many years' usage, standing in the sitting-room corner or 
hanging on stag-horns or dog-wood forks on the side of the 
wall, was the eloquent subject of nightly rehearsals of her 
prowess and power in the annual deer hunt "over the moun- 
tains." Skill in horsemanship was essential, and breaking 
colts was naturally followed by broken limbs ; but manhood 
found a race of trained horsemen, both graceful and skillful in 
the saddle, unexcelled, I dare venture to assert, by any civilized 
people. A child of nature, the Virginia boy communed with 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 17 

her as his mother, and from her purest depths drew the richest 
inspirations. To him no mountains were so blue as hers, no 
streams so clear, no forests so enchanting, no homes so sweet. 

While others hailed in distant skies the glories of the Union 
He only saw the mountain bird stoop o'er his Old Dominion. 

How vividly the picture comes to me now (never to be 
effaced) of a learned professor in one of Virginia's highest 
schools, himself three-score years and ten, a soldier of two wars, 
as he led the way through a quiet Virginia town on horseback, 
followed by two sons, distinguished ministers of the gospel, and 
they in turn by a younger son and the grandson of the leader, 
with a goodly train of friends, amid the blasts of horns and 
baying of hounds, who followed, eager for the chase among 
the beautiful hills which surrounded the town of Lexington, 
even as the mountains stand ' ' round about Jerusalem. ' ' 

Religion — the duty of man to his Creator, not sectarianism — 
was scrupulously taught, and Sunday morning found the family 
alive in preparations for attending religious service at Zion or 
Trinity, as it might happen to be the first or the fourth Sun- 
da)' of the month. From this duty none were exempt from the 
least to the greatest. The pastor was the friend on whom all 
troubles both temporal and spiritual were cast, and his visits 
were long remembered and talked of in the life of each family. 
Deference to his wishes and reverence for his character were 
well-nigh universal. 

A man he was to all the country dear, 

And passing rich with forty pounds a year; 

Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 

Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place. 

Unskillful he to fawn, or seek for power, 
By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; 
Far other aims his heart had learned to prize, 
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. 

H. Mis. 320 2 



18 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, on the 

Such was the atmosphere in which our deceased friend was 
reared. He was a trustee in the venerable institution of Wash- 
ington and Lee University at Lexington, Va. , founded by Gen. 
Washington, and presided over by Gen. Robert E. Lee during 
the last years of his life; he was faithful to the trust, and ever 
watchful of the best interests of the school. The loss sustained 
by this institution in his death has been most fittingly expressed 
in the appended minute of the faculty of the university, adopted 
on the 19th of October, 1891: 

At a meeting of the faculty of Washington and Lee University, held October 19, 
1 89 1, the following minute was adopted : 

Upon the announcement of the death of Gen. W. H. F. Lee the faculty of Washing- 
ton and Lee University unite in sorrowful sympathy with his family, bereaved of hus- 
band, father, and brother; with the Commonwealth in the loss of a patriotic citizen; 
and with the board of trustees of this university, of which he was an esteemed member. 

He was graduated at Harvard for the life of a civilian, but took a commission in the 
United States Army as lieutenant, and served with fidelity to duty under Gen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston in the Utah expedition of 1858. 

At its close he resigned and returned to his country home, where he continued to live 
until 1 86 1, when he entered the Confederate army, and, rising by rapid promotion to 
the rank of major-general of cavalry, closed his efficient and faithful military career in 
1865, when he again returned to country life, and died at the seat of his ancestors, at 
Ravensworth, in Fairfax County. 

In the mean time his private life was interrupted by the voice of his people, which 
called him to their service in the senate of Virginia and for three terms as their Rep- 
resentative in Congress, two of which he completed, and left the vacancy in the third 
by his untimely death. 

Truth, honor, and courage to do good and to resist evil, sincerity in all relations 
and fidelity to all duty, were heirlooms of his race and lineage, which he kept and left 
untarnished to his posterity. 

With a mind strong and vigorous, a judgment sound and well-poised, a calm and 
self-contained temper, which impelled him to the right and restrained him from the 
wrong, and a moral sense which guided and controlled his purposes and his actions 
along the path of absolute rectitude, he lived a life adorned by noble virtues and filled 
with noble deeds. Gentle but firm, decided, and fixed in his convictions, but respect- 
ful and deferential to those of others, he was a model of all the splendid qualities 
which make up the character of a courteous and Christian gentleman. 

In addition to all these natural gifts his convictions led him to the profession and 
practice of a simple and genuine faith in the religion of Christ. 

After an honorable military and civil career, in the peace of God and in charity with 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 19 

his fellow-men, this worthy son of an illustrious family died the death of the righteous 
and in the hope of immortality through Him in whom he believed and trusted. 

The faculty therefore declare — 

That they have heard of the death of Gen. Lee with deep sorrow, and mourn it as a 
calamity to his family, his friends, his country, and to this university 

That they tender to his family these expressions of their affectionate esteem for him 
as a personal friend as well as for his service as a public man, and their sincere sym- 
pathy with them in their peculiar and irreparable bereavement. 

A copy. Teste: Tn ,^ t „ 

J no. L. Campbell, 

Clerk of the Faculty. 

An intimate association with Gen. LEE in the Fifty-first Con- 
gress and as members of the board of trustees of Washington 
and Lee University at Lexington, Va., and in private life, 
enabled me to form a just estimate of his character and of those 
personal qualities of head and heart that made him beloved by 
all who really knew him. While they have been well expressed 
in the foregoing minute, I may add from my own observations 
a brief summary of his noble character. His mind was emi- 
nently practical, and arrived at its conclusions more from an 
unerring instinct of justice and common sense than through 
the exacting processes of logic. His judgment was rarely at 
fault, for his intellect was not swerved by passion or prejudice, 
but was held in perfect equipoise to receive the truth on both 
sides of every question. His deference to the opinions of others 
and his caution in seeking the views of those on whose discre- 
tion he relied suggested to some who did not know him that 
he was hesitating in temperament. This was not true. He 
sought all the light possible on every subject patiently and ear- 
nestly, and when he arrived at his conclusion no man adhered 
to it more tenaciously or enforced it more earnestly. 

As a speaker, Gen. LEE possessed many of the attributes of 
the orator, a gift inherited from his grandfather, Light-Horse 
Harry Lee. He was graceful in delivery, persuasive in manner, 
and forcible in argument. 



20 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, on the 

His diction was pure, unpretentious, and simple. His 
speeches were often embellished with references to ancient and 
modern history and mythology with which he seemed to be 
very familiar. 

Dutifulness, I believe, was the most prominent trait of his 
character. It was the star by which his life was guided. Once 
persuaded that a certain measure or a certain line of policy was 
right, and he was unflinchingly firm in its support. No burden 
was too heavy, no privation too severe, if only they were borne 
along the path of duty. 

He exemplified in his life the noble utterance of his distin- 
guished father: "Duty is the sublimest word in the English 
language. ' ' 

In politics he was a Democrat, but not a partisan, and he 
firmly believed that the supremacy of his party was necessary 
for the good of the country and the welfare of the people. His 
patriotism was exalted, and his faith in the ultimate triumph 
of the right never wavered. 

His manly appearance, his gracious but dignified manner, his 
courtly bearing and pleasing conversation marked him as a gen- 
tleman of the "old school," as one of nature's noblemen. 

Any sketch of Gen. LEE would, indeed be imperfect that failed 
to mention his love for little children, and his friends will never 
fail to recall the tender interest he always manifested in the chil- 
dren of their families, especially in the youngest. 

His life, Mr. Speaker, was a truly noble one. It was on the 
highest plane. His character had no spot or blemish upon it 
that sweet charity would now consign to oblivion, but it was 
robust, well-rounded, and symmetrical, open as day. His am- 
bition was not to attain but to deserve the praise of the good, and 
that higher benediction, to be pronounced by the final Judge of 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 21 

the world: "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou 
into the joys of thy Lord." 

He was an earnest believer in the Christian faith. The ab- 
struse doctrines of the church formed no part of his creed. His 
faith was in the Christ the Saviour of mankind ; a faith which 
illumined his pathway in life, lightening his burdens, exalting 
his nature, and which sustained him without fear when he met 
the last enemy of the race as he walked through "the valley of 
the shadow of death." It was the faith of a little child — 

An assured belief 
That the procession of our fate, howe'er 
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being 
Of infinite benevolence and power, 
Whose everlasting purposes embrace 
All accidents, converting them to good. 

His funeral and burial, Mr. Speaker, will never be forgotten 
by those who witnessed it. The autumn sun was fast sinking 
behind the bright curtain of the west, bathing "the mellow au- 
tumn fields ' ' of Old Virginia with its purple hues. Un trum- 
peted by official authority, scores of friends from city, town, vil- 
lage, farm, and cabin gathered at Ravensworth to pay the last 
sad honor to their beloved friend. White and colored, rich and 
poor, high and low, soldiers, citizens, and statesmen, all were 
there. 

His body was borne from the house to the ivy-clad family 
graveyard by the sturdy yeomanry of the neighborhood. In 
the presence of that vast throng, with uncovered heads, his 
comrades, who had followed him on many a hard-fought battle- 
field, performed the last sad rites, and with their own hands 
filled his grave and planted upon it the "immortelles" of their 
affection and devotion. Faces that never blanched amid the 
storm of battle paled; hearts that never quailed in the presence 



22 Address of Mr, O' 1 Ferrall, of Virginia, on the 

of an enemy broke in the presence of the last enemy of us all, 
and the silent, pitiless tear which fell from the eye was hidden 
by the lengthening shadows of the evening, which were fast 
gathering round the scene. 

Beloved friend, farewell and hail! 

Removed from sight, yet not afar, 
Still through this earthly twilight veil 

Thou beamest down, a friendly star. 

The prophet's blessing comes to thee, 

The crown he holds to view is thine; 
Forever more thy memory 

In heaven and in our hearts shall shine. 



Address of Mr. O'Ferrall, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: These occasions of tribute-offering in this 
Hall never fail to impress me with extreme sadness, increase 
my awe and reverence of Him who holds in the hollow of His 
hand every moment we live and every breath we draw, and 
teach me the lesson of our mortality. 

These scenes have become very familiar to me, and their 
frequency reminds me with terrible force that — 

All that lives must die, 

Passing through nature to eternity. 

Most naturally am I more than usually touched and pained 
by the death of him which now hangs its somber drapery 
around the walls of our hearts and casts its pall over this Cham- 
ber. It is a death within the representative circle of which I 
am a member. It is the death of a colleague, a friend, whose 
presence in that circle always brought sunshine and never 
shadow. 

Tributes to his memory, clothed in language of beauty and 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 23 

breathing with love and burning with pathos, have already 
been paid, and others will follow; and now, while I can not 
hope to charm with the tongue of eloquence or touch the soul 
with the figures of rhetoric, I come with my tribute. 

It will be plain and unadorned, but it will at least have the 
merit of sincerity, and, like the widow's mite, be all that I can 
give. 

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, is no more. 

How the name of Lee, whenever uttered, wherever chivalry 
has erected her altar, sends a thrill like an electric current 
through every fiber of the manly man. 

How the name of Virginia has been upon every tongue since 
Queen Elizabeth, nearly three centuries ago, gave that name 
to that section around which to-day historic memories linger 
and traditions and glories cluster as thick ' ' as the stars in the 
crown of night, ' ' the section where Christopher Newport and 
his devoted followers "builded an altar unto the Lord and in 
the savage wilderness ' ' deposited the germ of this mighty na- 
tion, ' ' and where God blessed them as He blessed Noah and his 
sons, saying unto them, ' The fear of you and the dread of you 
shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl 
of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all 
the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.' " 

Virginia! The land of legends and lays — the land where the 
cradle of republican liberty was rocked, and where, in 1765, the 
first denial was heard of the right of the British Parliament to 
levy taxes upon the Colonies which kindled the fire of patriotic 
fervor and led to the ever-living, soul-inspiring words of her 
Henry and the raising up of her Jefferson to heights of imper- 
ishable fame and her Washington to the pinnacle of everlast- 
ing- renown. 



24 Address of Mr. O^ Ferrall, of Virginia, on the 

Virginia! The land of battlefields and battle gore, colonial 
relics and Revolutionary monuments, spotless fame and unsul- 
lied honor; the land of patriot soldiers and heroes, and of a 
Yorktown, where the tyrant's head was bruised and the glorious 
strife ended which struck from our fathers the fetters and gave 
to them and their posterity a country gleaming in the golden 
sunlight of republican liberty, and throwing wide open her 
gates to the oppressed of every clime. 

Virginia! The land of mountains, upon whose summits and 
in whose gorges the spirit of freedom roams unfettered and 
unconquerable; the land of valleys, which are hung like 
alcoved aisles with scenes of heroism and pictures of daring, 
self-sacrifice, and devotion to principle; the land of rivers and 
rivulets, which reflect like mirrors the fields upon which her 
blood has been poured out like water upon the ground; the 
land of zephyrs and breezes, and where the storm king some- 
times dwells, gently murmuring or in thunder tones proclaim- 
ing her glories and her fame; the land of blue beautiful skies, 
radiant with the virtues of her daughters and bespangled with 
the deeds of her sons; the land of memorials of the past, that 
inspire the Virginia youth, whether born in poverty or in 
riches, reared in the cottage humble or in the mansion stately, 
with a patriotism that knows not section and yet a State love 
that knows not bounds. 

It was in this land that Richard Henry Lee, the fire and 
splendor of whose eloquence burned like a hot iron into the 
soul of tyranny, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, both of them 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, were born; it was 
in this land that Arthur Lee, through whose instrumentality 
the Colonies secured the friendship and support of France, and 
"Light-Horse Harry" Lee, whose legion following his plume, 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 25 

struck the enemy in the bivouac, on the march, in the lurid 
glare of battle, on the flank, and in the front like a thunder- 
bolt from the skies, were born. It was in this land that Rob- 
ert Edward Lee, whose services on the fields of Mexico decked 
his brow with the warrior's laurel, and whose leadership of 
the Confederate armies in the unfortunate strife between the 
States made his name immortal, and whose virtues shine with 
the brilliancy of a polished diamond, wreath his character 
in moral grandeur, and draw paeans and praises from friend 
and foe and from every clime where exalted manhood and a 
spotless life find devotees, was born ; and it was in this land 
that William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, whose memory we are 
here to perpetuate, was born — all, all of the same lineage and 
blood. 

What a line of illustrious and distinguished men of one 
name for one State to produce. What a line of illustrious 
men to spring from the old cavalier family that under the 
reign of Charles I settled in the county of Northumberland, 
between the waters of the Rappahannock and Potomac, since 
glorified by the pen of the historian and the lyre of the poet. 

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee ! How sweet does that 
name sound to me. What recollections does it awaken. How 
quickly do I find my heart throbbing; how rapidly my blood 
rushes through its channels. 

Less than a twelvemonth ago he sat in yon seat or moved 
hither and thither about this Hall and along these passage- 
ways, pausing here and there to speak a pleasant word or ex- 
change a friendly greeting. His tall and commanding person, 
his open, frank, and benevolent face and courtly bearing 
marked him among the membership of this House, and would 
have marked him in any assemblage, whether in the glitter- 



26 Address of Mr. 0' Ferrall, of Virginia, on the 

ing splendor of royalty or in the plain dignity of our republi- 
can institutions. To see him once was to remember him for- 
ever. His image is as distinct before me this moment as if 
he stood in the flesh with his eye beaming forth the goodness 
of his nature and his hand outstretched, as was his wont, to 
receive mine. 

Mr. Speaker, his illustrious father, when the shadows of 
Appomattox closed round him, when the darkness of defeat 
enveloped him, when his soul was rent and torn and his mind 
was filled with anguish and his ragged and tired and worn vet- 
erans, reduced to a mere thin skirmish line, the remnant of an 
army that had shed unfading luster upon the American arms 
and the American soldier, gathered with tear-moistened cheeks 
about him to bid him farewell and receive his blessing, gave 
utterance to a sentiment just quoted by my colleague [Mr. 
Tucker], a sentiment as grand and noble as was ever written 
upon any Roman tablet or carved upon any column of enduring 
marble that was ever reared in the flood light of glory: 

Duty is the sublimest word in our language. 

Yes, Mr. Speaker, thus spoke Robert Edward Lee, the soldier, 
hero, Christian, and philanthropist; and when we come to study 
the life and character of William Henry Fitzhugh I,EE we 
are impressed with the fact that he took duty as his talismanic 
word, that it was the star that guided him, and that he followed 
it as faithfully as the "wise men " followed the Star from " the 
East" to Jerusalem and thence to Bethlehem. 

We believe that in his youth, on the heights of Arlington, 
where his eyes first opened upon the light, he learned at his 
father's knee and by his father's daily walk and conversation 
the great lesson of duty which steered his course and pointed 
out his pathway in life. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 27 

He was born, as has been said, on the 31st day of May, 1837. 
In 1857 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Sixth Reg- 
iment of United States Infantry, and served in 1858 in the then 
far West under Albert Sidney Johnston, whose fame Shiloh 
echoes and reechoes along the banks of the Tennessee. In 
1859 he resigned his commission in the Army and returned to 
Virginia and located on his estate in the county of New 
Kent. In 1861, when the Southern tocsin sounded and Vir- 
ginia's voice was heard calling for troops, he raised a cavalry 
company and joined the Army of Northern Virginia. He rose 
gradually from captain to major-general of cavalry ; was wounded 
in the terrific engagement between the Confederate and Federal 
cavalry at Brandy Station on the 9th day of June, 1863; was 
captured at Hanover Court-House, and was confined at Fort 
Monroe and Fort Lafayette until March, 1864, when he was 
exchanged, and repaired to his command, and served until the 
flag which he loved was furled forever at Appomattox. 

From that time forward he cultivated his large estate with 
much care, serving one term in the senate of his State, declin- 
ing a renomination. In 1886 he was elected to the Fiftieth 
Congress from the Eighth Congressional district of Virginia, 
and again in 1888 to the Fifty-first Congress, and still again 
in 1890 to the present Congress. 

It was my privilege and pleasure to form his acquaintance in 
the army and to watch his flashing blade amid the carnage of 
battle, observe his cool courage and intrepid bearing and the 
love and confidence of his men upon more than one sanguinary 
field. He was as calm when the leaden hail was rattling- and 
as cool when the shells were shrieking and bursting- as he was 
upon this floor. He was a leader, not a follower of his men; 
if they went into the jaws of death, he was at their head. He 



28 Address of Mr. O ' Ferrall, of Virginia, on the 

fared as his men fared; if their haversacks were empty, his 
was empty; if they laid down in the mnd, he laid there too; if 
they sweltered in the summer heat or shivered in the winter 
blast, he sweltered or shivered too; and thus it was he kindled 
in the breasts of his men intense love for himself and secured 
their implicit confidence in his leadership. 

The promotions he received, rising from a captain to a major- 
general, speak in terms stronger than any words of mine of his 
courage and valor and his qualities as a soldier and military 
chieftain. 

As a civilian, pursuing the quiet walks of rural life and 
devoting himself to agriculture, the noblest of all arts, he was 
honored by all the people and drew to him his neighbors, bind- 
ing them with the steely bands of constant friendship. His 
word was as good as his bond, and the dusky son of toil as well 
as the intelligent tenant on his wide possessions relied upon it 
with absolute faith ; and the most beautiful tribute that could 
be paid to his memory was the deep sorrow which manifested 
itself in a meeting after his death of those whose brawny muscle 
had held the plow-handles and whose toil had made the corn 
and the wheat grow on his rich and fertile fields. 

In politics he was a Democrat, and he was as pure in the 
political arena as in private life. He scorned the ways of the 
demagogue and the timeserver, and believed that "men should 
be what they seem. ' ' In the councils of his State and in the 
councils of the nation he was found at all times in full accord 
with the principles and policy of his party. 

As a Representative he was as true to his constituents as any 
subject to his sovereign, laboring in season and out of season 
to serve them, and even when his strong frame began to weaken 
and the germs of disease had been planted in his system he dis- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 29 

regarded the warning calls for rest and continued to bend all 
his energies in the discharge of his trust, and I but speak the 
truth when I say that he fell a martyr to duty. 

But, Mr. Speaker, while he was grand as a soldier, pure as a 
man, exalted as a citizen, and faithful as a Representative, it 
was in the home circle, as husband and father, and not on the 
battlefield, in civil life, or in the halls of legislation, that the 
beauty and loveliness of his character drew a halo around 
him. 

He loved home, and it had a charm for him which neither 
pleasures, honors, nor fame could pluck from his bosom. 
Blessed by the companionship of one worthy of all adoration, 
and who presided like a queen over his household, entering 
into all his joys, sharing all his sorrows, and encouraging all 
his aspirations, he loved the breezes that kissed her cheeks, the 
birds that made sweet music to her ear, the rivulets that gently 
murmured her name, the flowers that shed their fragrance in 
her bowers, and the stately oaks under which the children of 
their union had prattled and the pebbled walks upon which 
they had played and gamboled. 

Yes, he loved home, and in its sacred circle his presence was 
like a sunbeam, brightening every face and warming every 
heart. He was all patience, gentleness, kindness, and love, and 
if there ever was a home which was a fit emblem of heaven it 
was Ravensworth, the home of this distinguished man. 

Mr. Speaker, he is gone. He lives now only in memory. 
In October last, when the frosts were blighting and the leaves 
were falling and the autumnal winds were sighing, after patient 
waiting for the fatal hour it came, and God's finger touched 
him, and the brave soldier, honored citizen, faithful Repre- 
sentative, devoted husband, and affectionate father was dead. 



30 Address of Air. Wise, of Virginia, on the 

He passed away quietly, strong in Christian faith and in the 
hope of a blissful eternity. 

William Henry Fitzhugh LEE ! His State mourns his 
death. Within the bosom of her soil he rests — peacefully 
rests. In his ancestral land near by Arlington, historic, revered 
Arlington, the scene of his childhood and early manhood, he 
sleeps — sleeps the sleep that knows no waking. 

Earth, that all too soon hath bound him, 

Gently wrap his clay ! 
Linger lovingly around him, 

Light of dying day ! 

And Virginia — 

Bending lowly, 
Still a ceaseless vigil holy 
Keep above his dust. 



Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: In accordance with a beautiful and impressive 
custom we put aside for to-day our legislative duties to pay a 
tribute of respect to the memory of Hon. William H. F. Lee, 
of Virginia. In November, 1890, he was elected to serve as a 
member of this Congress from the Eighth district of that State, 
receiving in that action of his devoted constituents a merited 
indorsement of his conduct and services as their Representative 
for the two preceding terms. But when the day of our assem- 
bling arrived my colleague was not present to answer to the call 
of his name. He had passed over the river and was resting under 
the shade of the trees on the other side. He was beloved and 
honored by all the people of Virginia, and the announcement 
of his death, which occurred on the 15th day of October, 1891, 
was received everywhere within her borders with expressions of 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 31 

the deepest sorrow. He was born at Arlington, on the Virginia 
heights, opposite this beautiful city, on the 31st day of May, 
1837, and at the time of his death was in the fifty-fifth year of 
his age. 

In 1857, when he was pursuing his studies in the University 
of Harvard, in preparation for the active and serious duties of 
life, he received from the then President of the United States 
the appointment of brevet second lieutenant in the Sixth Infan- 
try. At that time the spirit of resistance to the authority of the 
National Government was being exhibited to such an extent in 
Utah as to call for measures of repression. Assassinations and 
outrages of all kinds were common, and the officers of the United 
States were powerless either to prevent or punish their com- 
mission. 

When Mr. Buchanan became President the resolution was 
formed that the insubordination and conflict of authority existing 
in that Territory should cease, and the necessary executive and 
judicial officers having been appointed for the enforcement of the 
laws of the United States and the preservation of the public peace, 
it was determined to send a detachment of the Army to protect 
them against violence and to assist them as a posse comitatus, 
when necessary, in the performance of their duties. Gen. Albert 
Sidney Johnston became the commander of this military force, 
and Lieut. LEE had his first experience of the service in this 
expedition. As the occasion does not call for a recital of the 
events of that period, I will content myself with the remark that 
he was then, as on every occasion in after years, faithful to the 
obligations of duty. His term of service in the Army was of 
short duration, and from that fact we may infer that he was not 
enamored with the life of a soldier in time of peace. 

In 1859 he resigned his commission, and soon thereafter was 



32 Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, on the 

married to Miss Wickham, the daughter of a family distinguished 
in the annals of Virginia. They went to reside at the White 
House, on the Pamuukey River, in the county of New Kent. 
It was at this old historic country home that the marriage of 
George Washington with the Widow Custis was celebrated. It 
descended to Gen. LEE from his mother, who was the great- 
granddaughter of Washington's wife. 

Here he devoted himself to the tillage of the soil and became 
engrossed with the pursuits of a plain and unostentatious 
farmer. His condition and surroundings at this time were 
such as to invite contentment and encourage the cultivation 
of those pure and lofty sentiments for which he was ever dis- 
tinguished. 

Being in the flower and strength of his young manhood and 
blessed with affluence and the love of an accomplished wife, 
there seemed wanting nothing to make his home an earthly 
paradise. 

But the course of this peaceful and happy life was not to run 
thus smoothly to the end. Dark and threatening clouds of war 
soon lowered upon our land, and the political conflicts and an- 
tagonisms, which had grown in intensity and bitterness with 
the flight of years, ripened into civil war in 1861. The crisis 
then arrived when the appeal to arms was inevitable, and with 
it the necessity that all men should decide whether allegiance 
was first due to the State or General Government. There were 
honest differences of opinion on this question, which had ex- 
isted from the very foundation of the Republic. 

He was connected by blood with a long line of illustrious 
men, who had borne a conspicuous part in the events which 
led to the declaration of American independence and the estab- 
lishment of this constitutional Government. It was Richard 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 33 

Henry Lee who offered in the Continental Congress, in June, 
1776, that stirring resolution which proclaimed to the world 
"that these united Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free 
and independent States; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British Crown; and that all political connection 
between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved." 

It was his own grandfather, known in history as "Light-Horse 
Harry Lee," who, in the long struggle which followed this 
bold declaration, struck such sturdy blows for the liberties and 
rights of his countrymen as caused him to receive the special 
commendation of George Washington, of whom in turn he 
uttered those memorable words: " First in war, first in peace, 
and first in the hearts of his countrymen. ' ' Bearing a name 
thus associated with all the glorious achievements of the past, it 
was but natural that he should have felt an ardent attachment 
to the Union. But he was a son of Virginia, "where Amer- 
ican liberty raised its first voice and where its youth was 
nurtured and sustained." 

There the doctrine of the sovereignty of the State was ac- 
cepted as the true interpretation of the Constitution almost 
without division of sentiment. Her people held that alle- 
giance was first due to their State, and while all deplored the 
necessity for, few, if any, doubted as to the right of separation. 
When in April, 1861, a convention representing her people 
passed the ordinance of secession, he felt no hesitation in adopt- 
ing his course. He resolved at once to consecrate himself and 
his sword to the sacred duty of defending her homes and fire- 
sides. 

Having raised a company of cavalry, he was made its captain, 
and was rapidly promoted from rank to rank until he reached 
H. Mis. 320 3 



34 Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, on the 

that of major-general. Soon after his entry into the Confeder- 
ate service he became associated with the command of Gen. J. 
E. B. Stuart, and participated thereafter in nearly all the move- 
ments of that fearless and dashing leader, whom the brave Gen. 
Sedgwick, of the United States Army, pronounced "the best 
cavalry officer ever foaled in North America. ' ' On June 3, 
1862, Gen. Robert B. Lee, the father of my deceased colleague, 
assumed the command of the Army of Northern Virginia three 
days after the retiracy of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, caused by a 
wound received in the battle of Seven Pines. 

The plans of the Federal commander for the capture of the 
capital of the Southern Confederacy had been well chosen. His 
army, according to his own report, numbered 156,000, of whom 
115,000 were ready for duty as fighting men. All the vast re- 
sources of his Government were being employed to enable him 
to prosecute his campaign with efficiency and vigor. His 
troops had been furnished with artillery and small arms of the 
most approved description and best pattern. They had abun- 
dance of ammunition of the finest quality and ample supplies 
of food and clothing. Gen. McDowell, then at Fredericksburg 
with 40,000 men, and Gens. Banks and Fremont in the valley 
of Virginia, were expected to cooperate in the movement. A 
line of fire was slowly but steadily being drawn around Rich- 
mond. These plans, as I have said, had been well conceived 
and were being executed with great precision and skill. 

To oppose this formidable advance there were less than 100,000 
fighting men in Virginia, and they were greatly inferior to the 
enemy in both equipments and supplies. Gen. Johnston, pene- 
trating the designs of his adversary, commenced operations to 
prevent their accomplishment. The bloody and stubbornly 
contested battle of Seven Pines was fought in part execution 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 35 

of his plans. When Gen. Robert E. Lee succeeded to the com- 
mand it was apparent that some decisive blow must be struck 
to save the Southern capital from a state of siege. Surveying 
the whole field with a keen and practiced eye, he saw that the 
left wing of the Union army, which had been thrown across the 
Chickahominy and advanced to within four or five miles of Rich- 
mond, occupied a strong and almost impregnable position. An 
attack upon the center promised no better results. 

Under these circumstances he turned his attention to the 
right wing, and, in order to obtain the fullest and most accurate 
information concerning McClellan's position and defenses on 
that portion of his line, ordered Gen. Stuart to make a recon- 
noissance in the direction of Old Church and Cold Harbor. 
With 1,500 picked men that pink of Southern chivalry imme- 
diately undertook the execution of the orders of the command- 
ing general. This daring exploit was popularly known as 
"Stuart's ride around McClellan." It is a fact that he did 
pass entirely around the Union army, and, building a bridge 
across the Chickahominy, reentered the Confederate lines in 
safety. In this perilous expedition he was assisted by his brav- 
est and best officers, among whom were Gens. William H. F. 
LEE, and his cousin, the dashing Fitz Lee. 

More was accomplished than had been anticipated, and it was 
ascertained that the right and rear of McClellan were unpro- 
tected by works of any strength. In consequence of the infor- 
mation thus obtained the decision was formed to make the 
attack in that direction, and on the 26th of June, 1862, began 
that series of splendid battles which culminated in the retreat 
of McClellan's army to Harrisons Landing, on the James 
River, and the deliverance of Richmond from danger. On the 
9th of June, 1863, there occurred near Brandy Station, in the 



36 Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, on tlie 

county of Culpeper, Va., one of the most extensive and stub- 
born cavalry fights of the whole war. Two divisions of Fed- 
eral cavalry, commanded by Gens. Buford and Gregg, and sup- 
ported by two brigades of ' ' picked infantry, ' ' fell upon Stuart 
with such suddenness and fierceness that the attack was 
almost crowned with victory. Nothing saved him from defeat, 
if not from greater calamity, but his own coolness and that of 
his lieutenants, coupled with the indomitable pluck and intre- 
pidity of his troopers. 

In this engagement that brave Georgian Gen. Young, for- 
merly a member of this House, by a splendid charge with 
sabers, without carbine or pistol, repulsed a dangerous and 
gallant assault on the rear, while Gen. William H. F. LEE, 
with equal courage and dash, protected the left of the Confed- 
erate position. In this encounter Gen. LEE received a severe 
wound, which necessitated his retirement from the field. He 
was carried to Hickory Hill, in Hanover County, the home of 
Gen. Wickham, a near relative of his wife, and here he was 
captured and placed in solitary confinement in Fort Monroe 
as a hostage, certain officers of the United States being then 
held under sentence of death in Libby Prison in retaliation 
for the execution of certain Confederate officers in the West. 

Gen. Custis Lee, being then a young unmarried man, on the 
staff of the Confederate President, met, under special flag of 
truce, representatives of the Government at Washington, and 
begged to be permitted to take the place of Gen. William H. 
F. LEE, giving as a reason for the proposed exchange his 
desire to save from punishment the innocent wife and children 
of his wounded brother. The offer was declined, and he was 
told that the burdens of war must fall where chance or for- 
tune placed them. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 37 

In this incident we have a beautiful and touching illustra- 
tion of the strength and warmth of brotherly love and of the 
knightly bearing of the Lees of Virginia. While thus de- 
tained as a prisoner of war, racked with physical suffering 
and those mental tortures which a sensitive and high-strung 
man must feel under such circumstances, there came the sad 
tidings of the death of his loved wife and two children ; and 
thus was added another, the most poignant of all the griefs 
with which he had been afflicted. His old Virginia home, 
associated with so many sacred memories, had been reduced to 
ashes, and now there remained of the once happy family which 
formerly occupied it only the captive father. This weight of 
woe would seem too much for human endurance, but he bore 
it with the fortitude of a Christian soldier. He was exchanged 
in the spring of 1864, and returning to his division, led it in 
all the engagements, from the Rapidan to the Appomattox, 
where the curtain fell upon the stirring and bloody scenes in 
which he had been such an active participant. 

As a soldier he was always calm, cool, and self-possessed. 
Those who have had experience in the ranks know that the 
bravest and best soldiers will falter and hesitate when they are 
without confidence in the ability, judgment, and foresight of 
their leader. The soldiers who were ranged under the stan- 
dard of Lee, believing that their noble commander was equal 
to all emergencies, followed him with unwavering trust, and 
their survivors testify to the affection in which a spirit so gen- 
tle and yet so brave was held. 

No higher eulogy can be pronounced upon any man than to 
say of him that which can be truly alleged of Gen. LEE, that 
he was an honored and trusted leader in that splendid Army of 
Northern Virginia, which only failed where success was im- 



38 Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, on the 

possible. v They challenged the respect and admiration of the 
world, and of their great captain it has been said that ' ' a coun- 
try which has given birth to men like him and those who fol- 
lowed him may look the chivalry of Europe in the face with- 
out shame, for the fatherlands of Sidney and Bayard never 
produced a nobler soldier, gentleman, and Christian than 
Robert E. Lee." 

These meager details of our civil war have not been given 
with the purpose of reviving unpleasant memories or of per- 
petuating sectional animosities. They have been related be- 
cause they constitute an important part of the story of the life 
of him whom we mourn. 

On both sides were displayed the highest qualities of the 
military leader, and illustrated as never before the pluck, en- 
durance, and dash of the American soldier. They were Amer- 
icans all, and, without distinction of sections, we can claim 
part of the honor of their achievements and partake in the 
pride of their great names. We have furnished to the world 
the indubitable proof that these States united are invincible. 
When, at Appomattox, our arms were stacked and banners 
furled we returned to our homes with no divided allegiance. 

We believe that in the safety of the Union is the safety of the 
States. And we rejoice that "the gorgeous ensign of the Re- 
public is still full high advanced, its arms and trophies stream- 
ing in their original luster, not a stripe polluted or erased, not a 
single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable in- 
terrogatory as 'What is all this worth?' Nor those other words 
of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first and Union afterwards, ' but 
everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blaz- 
ing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the 
land and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 39 

sentiment, dear to every true American heart, ' Liberty and 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable. ' ' ' 

But while entertaining these sentiments, we can not, we will 
not, forget our glorious dead. The brave men against whom 
we fought neither expect nor desire such unnatural conduct. 
Whether the cause for which they died was just or not it would 
be idle to discuss. It is enough for us to know that — 

They were slain for us, 

And their blood flowed out in a rain for us— 

Red, rich, and pure, on the plain for us; 

And years may go, 

But our tears shall flow 

O'er the dead who have died in vain for us. 

After the cessation of hostilities Gen. Lee resumed the occu- 
pations of a farmer on the old plantation which he had left in 
1861. The implements of warfare were exchanged for those of 
the husbandman, and following the plow on the furrows he com- 
menced the work of repairing the losses he had sustained. In 
1868 he married Miss Mary Tabb Boiling, the daughter of Col. 
George W. Boiling, of Petersburg, and they continued their resi- 
dence at the White House until 1874, when they removed to 
Ravensworth, in the county of Fairfax, where he died. 

He was an able and faithful Representative, and always de- 
voted to the interests of his constituents. As a fitting eulogy to 
his worth it may be truly said that it was his disposition to 
follow the line of duty to the end. The conscientious perform- 
ance of every trust confided to him was the watchword of his 
life. In his conduct as a legislator he was never ruled by faction 
or interest, but the promotion of the public good was the motive 
of all his actions. While exhibiting none of the showy and 
sparkling qualities of the orator, he was distinguished for the 
possession of good judgment and strong practical common sense. 



40 Address of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, on the 

He was a man of calm and even temperament, and was seldom, 
if ever, controlled by prejudices or swayed by passion. Those 
who were associated with him here remember his dignified and 
courteous bearing. No words of bitterness or reproach ever 
escaped his lips, and he never forgot what was due to others as 
well as to himself. 

I never heard him speak an unkind word of another, and 
while reserved, and to a certain extent formal, in his demeanor, 
he was a man of infinite sweetness of disposition: 

And thus he bore without abuse, 
The grand old name of gentleman. 

Both in his public and private life he furnished an example 
worthy of the emulation of all who love the true nobility of 
humanity. We will draw aside the curtain only for a passing 
glance at the domestic circle, of which his beautiful and lovely 
wife was at once the pride and the ornament. Surrounded by 
this devoted helpmeet and two manly sons, there was not a 
happier home in old Virginia. Warmed by the love of his big 
and generous heart, it was the abode of contentment and peace. 
The dread messenger was never more unwelcome than when he 
entered the portals of Ravensworth and made vacant forever the 
chair of the husband and the father. 

We can say nothing to assuage the poignant grief of the widow 
and children, but our hearts are filled with the fervent prayer 
that Heaven's choicest blessings may be showered upon them. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 41 



Address of Mr. Herbert, of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker : In this brief tribute to the memory of Gen. 
William H. F. Lee I should be unworthy of the friendship 
which it was my privilege to claim did I indulge in anything 
else than the language of soberness and truth. In him there was 
no manner of affectation ; he pretended to be nothing but such 
as he was, and it is certain that if he had been giving directions 
to his biographer he would have laid down the rule announced 
by Thomas Carlyle, in his review of the life of Lockhart, 
that the biographer in the treatment of his subject "should 
have the fear of God before his eyes and no other fear what- 
ever. ' ' 

Froude, as biographer, claims subsequently to have applied 
to the life of Carlyle his own rule ; and all the world knows 
that in the portrayal of Carlyle' s faults of character the biog- 
rapher left many a sting in the hearts of those who had loved 
the great man while he lived and who felt that the failings on 
which the historian had dwelt ought to have been interred with 
his bones. The biographer who shall perform faithfully the 
task of writing the life of ' ' Rooney ' ' L,EE will not paint him 
as a genius like Carlyle ; but, sir, if there was any single 
feature in the character of our friend that, laid bare to the world 
even by the bold hand of an Anthony Froude, would cause the 
faintest blush to tinge the cheek of family or friends, I, who 
knew him well, do not know what it was. 

It is true, sir, that it was not my fortune to be thrown in 
contact with him in the earlier years of his life. I did not 
know him when his character was being shaped and molded 



42 Address of Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, on the 

by the generous and refining influences which surrounded him 
from his cradle to hi« manhood. 

My personal acquaintance with him may be said to have 
begun only when he had taken his seat by my side in this Hall. 
But his fame had come before him. A representative of the 
most distinguished family in America, he had been, by this 
circumstance alone, conspicuous from his birth ; and yet he 
came among us with not a spot upon his name. 

During the civil war, from a subordinate position rising rap- 
idly to high command and always in the bright light that 
surrounded him as a son of the most illustrious general of 
modern times, he bore himself as a soldier without reproach. 
Neither in civil life nor in war had calumny assaulted him. 
Such a man, entering here upon a new career, attracted atten- 
tion the moment he came into this Hall. 

It soon appeared to those who watched him closely that he 
was singularly modest. This modesty was not diffidence. He 
was at all times self-poised. On this floor, addressing himself 
to a public question just as in a private conversation among 
his friends, he always had the easy, unpretentious manner of 
the thoroughbred gentleman, but his modesty was easily ap- 
parent in an utter lack of self-assertion. He never put himself 
forward except when duty prompted, and then he did nothing 
for display ; never a word did he speak for himself, but only 
for his cause. 

He made indeed no pretensions to oratory; he had never 
been trained in its arts; but his mind was broad and highly 
cultured, he had a vast fund of vigorous common sense, and he 
expressed himself readily and pointedly. With these faculties 
he would in time have taken rank as a strong debater. 

While broadly patriotic, he had at the same time a high 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 43 

sense of obligation to his immediate constituency, and he was 
patient to a remarkable degree. His district, you will remem- 
ber, Mr. Speaker, lay just beyond the Potomac. 

It was an easy matter for his constituents to come to the 
Capitol, and naturally many of them sought office at his hands. 
I sat near him in the Fifty-first Congress. Often have I known 
him to be carded out a dozen times a day; and if he ever 
expressed himself to me as worried by these interruptions he 
never failed to show by what he said that his annoyance arose 
not so much from the importunities of his friends as from his 
inability to serve them. 

In address he was remarkably pleasing. Indeed, his manner 
was so genial, so pleasant, so hearty and sincere, that the mem- 
ory of his kindly greeting will not be forgotten until the whole 
generation of his friends shall pass away. Who is there among 
his associates on this floor that will ever cease to remember 
him as, morning after morning in the springtime, he came into 
this Hall, bringing from his home a basket of roses to distribute 
among his friends? He was not seeking popularity. Such a 
thought had not occurred to him, nor did it enter into the mind 
of anyone here. He simply loved his friends, and he loved 
flowers just as he loved all things beautiful and true. 

Such a man could not but be, as Gen. LEE was, a model 
brother, husband, and father. In all his life nothing was more 
lovely and beautiful than his family relations. 

He had about him none of the arts of the demagogue; he 
was always true to himself, and therefore never false to any man. 
His whole walk and conversation illustrated that he was the 
worthy son of his noble father; that from his youth up he had 
profited by the precepts and example of that illustrious chieftain, 
who declared, in those memorable words already quoted by my 



44 Address of Mr. Hermann, of Oregon, on the 

eloquent friend [Mr. Tucker], that duty was the sublimest word 
in the English language. And, Mr. Speaker, let me say that 
the idea conveyed by this word duty, as taught by the father 
and practiced by the son, was far higher than that ideal, lofty 
though it was, expounded by philosophers like Plato and 
Cicero. With the Lees duty meant Christian duty. 

With all these characteristics Gen. LEE could not but grow 
and continue to grow as he did in power and influence in a body 
like this; and had he been spared for that long career in this 
Hall hoped for by his friends he would have risen to eminence 
as a legislator. 

But this was not to be. He has passed away from us forever. 

When such a man dies out from among us, let critics cavil as 
they may about time wasted in memorial addresses. We should 
do violence to our own feelings did we not pause to honor his 
memory; we should do wrong to the American people, whose 
heritage they are, did we not spread before them the lessons of 
his life, that the whole country may venerate his virtues and 
the youth of the land may emulate his example. 



Address of Mr. Hermann, of Oregon. 

Mr. Speaker: Of all picturesque spots on the face of the earth 
there is perhaps none that can rival in scenic beauty Mount 
Arlington, in the State of Virginia. Shaded by the primeval 
forest to the rear, and in front beautified by the gently sloping 
lawn, decorated by variegated flowers and artistically trimmed 
shrubbery, with the dark-green waters of the Potomac ebbing and 
flowing not far away and in full view the mighty nation's 
splendid capital city, stands the stately old mansion, with its 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 45 

classic columns, where nearly fifty-five years ago was born our 
departed friend and colleague, and one of the beloved Repre- 
sentatives of the people of Virginia — Gen. William H. F. Lee. 
Born in Virginia, he remained a Virginian continuously to the 
hour of his death. 

Inheriting the martial genius of his eminent ancestry, he 
early aspired to a career in the military service of his country, 
and at the comparatively early age of twenty we find him bid- 
ding adieu to his college studies at Harvard and uniting with 
the Army in its expedition to Utah in 1858, where he first expe- 
rienced the fatigues and hardships incident to the life of the 
soldier in the long march over the arid plains and through the 
mountain canyons into the Mormon territory. The prospect of 
inaction, with a long period in garrison, proved a disappoint- 
ment to so ambitious a spirit, and he resigned his commission 
and returned to the domestic welcome of his Virginia farm. 

Soon, however, the indication of a long peace proved delu- 
sive, and the scene shifted. This time it was decreed that he 
should behold the terrible conflict in which one portion of his 
unhappy country was to engage in deadly array with another 
portion. Obeying what he conceived to be the mandate of his 
State, he followed the impulse of his feelings and the example 
of his kindred and his friends, and periled all in that belief. 
He participated at once, and most actively, in some of the most 
sanguinary engagements of the civil war. Wounded at one 
place, taken prisoner at another, then exchanged, and again in 
the van of battle, we find him following the forlorn hope until 
the close of the struggle at Appomattox, when he again re- 
turned to the old farm. 

He possessed the undivided confidence of his constituents. 
He was regarded by them, as he was so long observed by us 



46 Address of Mr. Hermann, of Oregon, on the 

in our intimate associations with him in this Hall, and espe- 
cially in the committee rooms, as an intelligent and conscien- 
tious legislator, a laborious servant of the people, a courtly gen- 
tleman, a generous and devoted companion. Loyal as he was 
to his political convictions, he was yet the most considerate 
and the most conservative in his relations with those who radi- 
cally differed with him. He admired frankness; he despised 
duplicity. While he was obedient to the reasonable edicts of 
caucus and party organization, we recall occasions when he was 
prompt to rise above the partisan. He was as broad-gauge and 
comprehensive in the study and performance of his duty toward 
all parts and all interests of his reunited country as he was 
anxious for the obliteration of sectional animosity and sincere 
and generous of heart in his social obligations to all of his 
fellow-men. 

The most touching remembrance we bear of Gen. LEE's 
goodness of heart has reference to his custom in springtime of 
bringing to this Hall from his farm great quantities of lovely 
roses, and having them distributed to his associates of both 
political parties on this floor with his compliments. Here we 
have a practical illustration that flowers are the interpreters of 
man's best feelings. In oriental lands the language of flowers 
was early studied and made expressive. As Percival says: 

Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, 
On its leaves a mystic language bears. 

With Gen. LEE they bore tidings of good will to partisan 
friend and partisan foe alike. They bespoke in mute eloquence 
the expansive heart of one " that loved his fellow-men." Lit- 
tle, however, did he think at the time that these beautiful roses 
were especially speaking to him as emblems of a near immor- 
tality. Awakening from their sleep of winter, they were also 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 47 

harbingers of a brighter day to him and of the bloom of a glo- 
rious resurrection. The Germans have a saying that ' ' he who 
loves flowers loves God. ' ' If this be applied to Gen. LEE, we 
have the blessed assurance that he has approached close to the 
celestial throne. 

Gen. LEE belonged to one of the most historic families of 
America. Looking back to the early settlement and the pio- 
neer struggles of the peninsula and then through the plantation 
and colonial period of entire Virginia, w-e everywhere discover 
the genius, the dauntless courage, the independence, and the 
resolute patriotism of the Lees. It has been well said, sir, that 
Virginia is the mother of Presidents; and this is true. A 
momentary reflection does not suffice to demonstrate the various 
causes which combined to bestow upon the Old Dominion this 
prominence. A mature study, however, will serve a double 
purpose. It will teach us not only how Virginia more than 
any other State became the nursery for Presidents and states- 
men, but how at the same time were given character and fame 
to its distinguished family — the Lees. 

The permanency and prosperity of states and political bodies 
are as much due to the character of their superstructures as 
are the strength and stability of the material edifice to the 
foundation upon which it rests. The Argonauts of Virginia 
united in a remarkable degree the pride and culture and learn- 
ing and loyalty of the Cavaliers with the conviction of purpose 
and martial courage and discipline of the followers of Cromwell. 
First came the heroic vanguard — the men like Capt. John 
Smith — who blazed the way through the forests of the James, 
the York, the Chickahominy, and Pamunkey. Then followed 
the refined, enthusiastic, and chivalric gentlemen of the polished 
court of Charles I, with many of the clergy, who brought with 



48 Address of Mr. Hermann, of Oregon, on the 

them their intense loyalty to the Crown, as well as to the epis- 
copal government and Anglican ritual. Among these, too, 
were the proselyted royalists ; old and honorable families after 
the defeat of Charles, seeking exile in the far distant yet faith- 
ful Virginia. Then came those who triumphed at Naseby, and 
overthrew the kingly office and maintained the constitution of 
the realm and the integrity of Magna Charta and the Petition 
of Rights. 

The necessity for self-defense and the maintenance of order 
originated self-government and the assertion of individual right, 
and these united the widely variant elements of the community 
in a loyal union. It was the amalgamation of such spirits in 
Virginia in 1676 which demanded the right of personal liberty, 
of universal suffrage, and of representation ; and here was fought 
the prelude of that great drama one hundred years later, when 
a Virginian, in the name of a whole nation, penned the immor- 
tal words which proclaimed to all the world the ' ' inalienable 
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Here were 
the Lees, the Patrick Henrys, the Randolphs, the Jeffersons, the 
Madisons, and the Masons of Virginia ; and here, to close the 
drama with freedom's triumphant army, was the most illus- 
trious of them all — George Washington. It was from such an 
ancestry our late colleague was descended, and it was from such 
teachings and such examples he imbibed his zealous convictions 
of right and his sturdy regard for the exalted prerogatives of a 
free people. 



Life and Character of William Jri. F. Lee. 49 



Address of Mr. Washington, of Tennessee. 

Mr. Speaker: On the 15th of last October death again in- 
vaded the ranks of this House. The mysterious messenger laid 
the summons of his cold silent hand upon one who had im- 
measurably endeared himself to all whose good fortune it had 
been to know him. To-day we pause amid the rush of a nation's 
public business to mourn the country's loss and to pay a just 
tribute to the noble dead. When such a man as our late col- 
league, Gen. William H. F. LEE, is taken from our midst, a void 
is made which can nevermore be filled. It is not his visible pres- 
ence or his tangible body that we shall so much miss. It is the 
magnetism of a pure mind, the silent, potent influence of a spot- 
less character, the power of a great, good, and noble soul to ele- 
vate and dignify all with whom it came in contact that will 
prove our irreparable loss. No man ever associated with Gen. 
LEE without feeling the better for it. To have been with him 
made you feel like one who had drawn a long deep inspiration 
of pure fresh air into his lungs after breathing the stifling at- 
mosphere of a close room. His thoughts, his conversation, his 
ideas diffused about him a sound and healthy morality, that was 
as natural to him as its delicate odor is to the rose. Modest and 
gentle as a woman ; sympathetic as a child ; guileless as the 
day; a logical, well-trained, accurate mind; a horror of injustice; 
absolutely devoid of resentment; a benignant countenance, and 
a splendid physique, made him indeed a man among men. 

Sir, I believe not only in early training, but in the force of 
early surroundings and family traditions. Sprung from an illus- 
trious line of statesmen and patriots, who had left their impress 
H. Mis. 320 4 



50 Address of Mr. Washington, of Tennessee, on tlie 

-on every page of the history, civil and military, of this country 
from the colonial days to the present; born on those beautiful 
lieights overlooking this city at Arlington, where the house was 
filled with the sanctified relics and the very atmosphere he 
breathed in childhood was pregnant with the traditions and 
precepts of ' ' the Father of his Country ; ' ' his mother being the 
daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son 
of the immortal Washington; his father that world-renowned 
military commander, the self-poised, calm, patient, dignified, 
glorious Gen. Robert E. Lee, it would be unnatural not to ex- 
pect to find the impress of all these on the heart and mind and 
character and life of Gen. William H. F. Lee. 

To some my words of eulogy may appear fulsome ; but having 
known him in public and in private, at home by his own fireside, 
as well as abroad on the active field of life, I know that my poor 
words can but fail to do full justice to his true worth. With 
him the performance of duty was accompanied by no harsh 
word or cynical expression; on the contrary, his calmness and 
uniform sweetness of manner were almost poetical. I recall a 
notable instance in the Fiftieth Congress, when, pressing under 
the most trying circumstances the passage of a bill for the relief 
of the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, he was temperate 
and patient. Standing on the Republican side of this Hall, 
among those who questioned him, his words fell softly and 
evenly as snowflakes on the turbulent House, which finally by 
an almost unanimous vote passed his bill. 

He shrank from publicity; therefore he never spoke on this 
floor unless it was necessary to push a measure intrusted to his 
charge; then he always acquitted himself with credit. In the 
committee and among his colleagues his influence was irresist- 
ible, because his judgment and integrity were above dispute. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 51 

With him a public office was a public trust, which he accepted 
and administered for his State and his constituents without re- 
gard to race, color, or party affiliation. Many times have I seen 
him, when coming in from his country home in the morning, 
met at the depot by a dozen or more of his constituents, claim- 
ing his attention to their private matters with the Departments 
of the Government. 

The patience and tender care with which he heard and looked 
after each were paternal and pathetic. His love for little chil- 
dren was intense and beautiful. Nothing made him happier 
than to fill some little fellow's hands and pockets with candies 
and fruits, claiming only in return a shy caress. In his home 
is where his perfectly balanced Christian character shone in its 
" brightest light. As father and husband he was indeed a model 
man. 

I shall attempt no extended biographical sketch; that has 
already been well done by others. Yet I can not refrain from 
saying that in every stage of his career Gen. LEE did his whole 
duty, actuated entirely and solely by the loftiest motives. 

A graduate of Harvard at twenty, he was appointed a second 
lieutenant in the regular Army. Often I have heard him tell 
of the wearisome march aross the plains to California with his 
regiment, long in advance of civilization and railroads, when 
most of that journey through the desert was made perilous by 
roving bands of hostile Indians. Retiring from the Army, he 
married and settled at the historic White House, in lower Vir- 
ginia. There he was the typical Southern country gentleman of 
refinement and culture, taking an active interest in agriculture 
and the public affairs of his community. When the war be- 
tween the States summoned Virginia's sons to her defense he 
again became a soldier. 



52 Address of Mr. Washington, of Tennessee, on the 

Throughout the struggle he discharged every duty and was 
equal to every responsibility placed upon him. His soldiers 
loved and trusted him as a father, for they knew he would 
sacrifice no life for empty glory. The saddest chapter in all his 
life was when — a prisoner of war at Fort Monroe, lying des- 
perately wounded, with the threat of a retaliatory death-sen- 
tence suspended over his head, in hourly expectation of its exe- 
cution — he heard of the fatal illness of his wife and two little 
children but a few miles away. Earnestly his friends begged 
that he might be allowed to go and say the last farewell to them 
on earth. A devoted brother came, like Damon of old, and 
offered himself to die in "Rooney's" place. War, inexorable 
war, always stern and cruel, could not accept the substituted 
sacrifice, and while the sick wounded soldier, under sentence 
of death, lay, himself almost dying, in the dungeon of the Fort, 
his wife and children ' ' passed over the river to rest under 
the trees ' ' and wait there his coming. Yet no word of i e- 
proach ever passed his gentle lips. He accepted it all as the 
fortune of war. 

In all the walks of life — as a student at college, as an officer 
in the regular Army, as a planter on the Pamunkey, as a leader 
of cavalry in the civil war, as a farmer struggling with the 
chaos and confusion that beset him under the new order of 
things following the abolition of slavery, as president of the 
Virginia Agricultural Society, as State senator, and as a mem- 
ber of Congress — Gen. William H. F. L,EE met every require- 
ment, was equal to every emergency, and left a name for honor, 
truth, and virtue which should be a blessed heritage and the 
inspiration for a nobler and loftier life to all those who shall 
succeed him. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 53 



Address of Mr. Henderson, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker: It is not iny purpose at this time to make any 
extended remarks upon the life and public services of the late 
Gen. William H. F. Lee. Other gentlemen of the House, 
more intimately acquainted with Gen. L,EE in his lifetime, are 
better prepared to do justice to his memory than I am. But 
having enjoyed a very pleasant acquaintance with the deceased 
during his four years' service as a member of this body, I desire 
to express the great respect which I entertained for him as a 
gentleman of high character and of noble, manly qualities. 
Descended from one of the most highly honored families in the 
State in which he had his birth, he was liberally educated, and 
at an early age entered the Army as a second lieutenant and 
served as such until 1859, when he resigned his commission 
and returned to the peaceful pursuits of civil life. In 1861 he 
followed his illustrious father, and entered the service of the 
Confederate States as a captain of cavalry. That he was a 
brave and gallant soldier there can be no doubt, for his mil- 
itary history shows that he rose step by step from the rank of a 
captain to that of a major-general of cavalry. In 1865 he sur- 
rendered with his father at Appomattox, and renewed his alle- 
giance and devotion, as I am glad to believe, to the Govern- 
ment of the United States. 

I can but wish, Mr. Speaker, that such honored names as 
those of Gen. William H. F. LEE and his distinguished father 
had never been led into rebellion against the Government of 
their country. But they felt it to be their duty to follow the 
fortunes of their State, and let us to-day, while mourning the 



54 Address of Mr. Chip?nan, of Michigan, on the 

departure of our deceased friend, rejoice that the surrender at 
Appomattox has been followed by a restored Union, and that 
our reunited, undivided country is now one of the strongest, 
most powerful, and prosperous of all the nations of the earth. 
As a Representative in this body, while he was not inclined 
to participate actively in the discussion of public and political 
questions, still Gen. L,EE took great interest in all that pertained 
to the public welfare, and especially in that which, in his judg- 
ment, was in the interest of his immediate constituents. He 
was an able, faithful, and efficient Representative as well as a 
noble, manly man, and in all my intercourse with men I never 
met a more genial, warm-hearted, pleasant gentleman than the 
distinguished citizen to whose memory we pay tribute to-day. 
I well remember his kindly greetings, and I am sure all of us 
who knew Gen. LEE deeply regret his loss as a member of this 
body, to which he was for a third time elected by his confiding 
constituents, and extend to his sorrowing bereaved family our 
warm heartfelt sympathies. 



Address of Mr. Chipman, of Michigan. 

Mr. Speaker : I have not been in the habit of speaking 
upon occasions of this kind, but it is one of the joys of my life, 
a very great joy indeed, to feel that I had a place in the heart 
of the gentleman whom we are now commemorating. I knew 
him very well, and in many respects I regarded him as one of 
the most fortunate men whom it was ever my pleasure to know. 
While many men here are struggling for fame, while many of 
them will leave the struggle heartsick, weary, defeated, he 
had that power, that charm, so precious and so lovely, of at- 



Life aiid Character of William H. F. Lee. 55 

taching men to him by the ties of affection. Little children 
loved him. 

There was a benignancy, a sweetness of demeanor, which 
attracted them to him, and while his name may not be 
sounded in the trump of fame, yet the subtile power of his gen- 
tleness and goodness has permeated many lives, will shape 
many destinies, and will have a force in the history of the 
world greater than that which will be exerted by many who 
will succeed him here. He was a soldier, yet he was gentle 
and kind. He was a descendant of a long line of honored an- 
cestry, yet he did not believe that mere wealth was necessary 
either to respectability or to greatness. He was a farmer and 
loved the soil. He looked upon the ripened grain as the 
flower of human hope and as a minister to human needs. He 
loved the breath of cattle, and he regarded the occupation of 
an agriculturist as the noblest and the best in which a man 
could be engaged. He was a true son of the soil — hearty, sim- 
ple, gentle, true. 

But, sir, the particulars of his career, both public and pri- 
vate, have been recounted by those who knew him well ; have 
been recounted with great force, with great eloquence and 
propriety. There is, however, one part of that career to which 
I wish to refer. He was engaged in the memorable struggle 
which convulsed this nation from center to circumference and 
which fastened the gaze of the civilized world. I wish upon 
this occasion to say emphatically, that wherever we may have 
stood in that struggle, whatever was good and great in any 
man participating on either side of it is a precious heritage to 
the entire American people to-day. We proved that, North, 
South, East, West, we had not degenerated in the qualities 
which make a nation great. 



56 Address of Mr. IVilson, of West Virginia, on the 

Grant and Lee, Sherman, Sheridan, and the two Johnstons 
have gone from us forever, and every day the green sward of 
peace, the flowers of affection, are placed above the grave of 
some hero of the blue or the gray. But I love to think that 
above these graves stands the Genius of American freedom, 
serene and grand, and bids the world behold how brave the 
sons of the Republic were in the past; how united they are in 
one purpose and one destiny in the present ; how certain they 
are to be a people noted for reasonable liberty, for perfect 
union, and for sufficient material power to be formidable and 
just alike to the other nations of the earth. 

And so, sir, I come and lay the flowers of my Northern 
home upon the bier of this son of Virginia, this good citizen, 
this patriot, this man who, I am proud to believe, held even 
me in his affection. And when gentlemen here speak of the 
terror and the mystery of death, I tell them that to such a man 
death has no terrors, and that to the good man it has no 
mystery ; for in that illimitable hereafter, which must be pop- 
ulated by all the sons of men, it must be, it will be, well with 
all of us. 



Address of Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: The House has already heard from his friend 
and successor the story of Gen. Lee's life. I shall not, there- 
fore, repeat it even in briefest outline. Enough for me to say 
that he was one in a long lineage of noted men, who by some 
innate force and virtue had stood forth in three generations as 
leaders of their fellow-men; that he was the son of the greatest 
of all who have borne the name, and that in early manhood 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 57 

he exhibited the soldierly instincts and the soldierly capacity 
that seemed to be historically associated with it. 

With such a lineage and with such a history he came to this 
House, and I believe I can offer no higher tribute to his mem- 
ory to-day than to say that in all his associations with us here 
he was the embodiment of gentleness and modesty. Indeed, 
Mr. Speaker, as I now recall Gen. LEE, and explore with ach- 
ing heart the memory of a close and cordial friendship with 
him, I can say with confidence that in the blending of these 
rare traits I have never known his equal. They were a part 
of his nature, not more illustrated in business and social inter- 
course with fellow-members than in his relations with the page 
who did him service and who learned to regard himself in some 
way as the special friend and associate of Gen. LEE. 

Many of us doubtless can recall the evident pride of the 
little fellow who occasionally placed upon our desks the roses 
which his kindly patron brought by the basketful in the spring 
mornings from his Virginia home to brighten the sittings of 
the House. And this gentleness and modesty were the more 
attractive because they were the adornment of a sincere and 
manly character. How much came to him as the rich legacy 
of ancestral blood and how much was wrought into his nature 
by the training of his youth it is idle to speculate. In both 
respects he was lifted far above the common lot of men. Of 
his mother it is said by those who knew her well that she was 
one of the most accomplished and at the same time most 
domestic, sensible, and practical of women. Of his father's 
influence and teaching, to say nothing of his lofty example, 
we have the striking proofs, if any were needed, in letters that 
have been published. Let me cull but an occasional expression 
from these unaffected outpourings of the heart of Robert E. 



58 Address of Mr. Wilson, of West Virginia, 011 the 

Lee toward the son he loved so well. " My precious Roon," as 
he was wont to call him. 

When the boy was not yet ten years of age he closes a playful 
letter, adapted to such tender years, with these earnest words: 

Be true, kind, and generous, and pray earnestly to God to enable you to keep His 
commandments and to walk in the same all the days of your life. 

A year later, writing from the ship Massachusetts, off Lobos, 
to his two sons, a letter full of interest to boys, he urges them 
to diligence in study: 

I shall not feel my long separation from you if I find that my absence has been ot 
no injury to you, and that you have both grown in goodness and knowledge as well as 
in stature; but how I shall suffer on my return if the reverse has occurred. You enter 
into all my thoughts, into all my prayers, and on you in part will depend whether I 
shall be happy or miserable, as you know how much I love you. 

Ten years later, when the son had become a lieutenant in the 
Army, he admonishes him : 

I hope you will always be distinguished for your avoidance of the universal bane 
whisky and every immorality. Nor need you fear to be ruled out of the society that 
indulges in it, for you will acquire their esteem and respect, as all venerate, if they do 
not practice, virtue. I hope you will make many friends, as you will be thrown with 
those who deserve this feeling. But indiscriminate intimacies you will find annoying 
and entangling, and they can be avoided by politeness and civility. When I think of 
your youth, impulsiveness, and many temptations, your distance from me, and the ease 
(and even innocence) with which you might commence an erroneous course, my heart 
quails within me and my whole frame and being tremble at the possible results. May 
Almighty God have you in His holy keeping. To His merciful providence I commit 
you, and I will rely upon Him and the efficacy of the prayers that will be daily and 
hourly offered up by those who love you. 

A year or two later, on New Year's Day, 1859, he writes: 

I always thought there was stuff in you for a good soldier and I trust you will prove 
it. I can not express the gratification I felt, in meeting Col. May in New York, at the 
encomium he passed upon your soldiership, your zeal, and your devotion to your duty. 
But I was more pleased at the report of your conduct ; that went more to my heart and 
was of infinite comfort to me. Hold on to your purity and virtue; they will proudly 
sustain you in all trials and difficulties and cheer you in every calamity. 

So, too, when the young lieutenant had married and settled 
down a typical Virginian farmer upon the estate left him bv 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 59 

his grandfather Custis, the well-known "White House" on 
the Pamunkey, the home of Martha Washington : 

I am glad to hear that your mechanics are all paid off and that you have managed 
your funds so well as to have enough for your purposes. As you have commenced, I 
hope you will continue never to exceed your means. It will save you much anxiety 
and mortification and enable you to maintain your independence of character and feel- 
ing. It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means 
conform to our wishes. In fact, we want but little. Our happiness depends upon our 
independence, the success of our operations, prosperity of our plans, health, contentment, 
and the esteem of our friends, all of which, my dear son, I hope you may enjoy to the 
full. 

With such counsels, glowing with a father's love and enforced 
by the constant example of a father's life, it is no wonder that 
the son grew into the manliness, the gentleness and modesty, 
the charitableness of judgment, the unconspicuous and patient 
devotion to duty, and the personal lovableness of Gen. LEE. 

Mr. Speaker, I might say much more from the promptings 
of a strong and unfeigned affection and from a sense of the pub- 
lic merits of our late colleague, but where there are so many to 
speak, it is not necessary for one to attempt a catalogue of his 
private virtues and of his public services. 

Perhaps I may fitly add a word in closing as to Gen. Lee's 
military career. From a captain of volunteer cavalry he rose 
on his own merits at the age of twenty-six to the rank of major- 
general. I have not searched the annals of war to recite his 
military history, for it is not the soldier that I have been com- 
memorating, but I may recall a testimony not improper to be 
placed on record here to-day. I happened to be in company with 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston about the time that Gen. LEE was first 
nominated for Congress. The old commander, who, as all 
know, was not given to effusive speech, expressed to me his 
hearty gratification at the event, and in doing so his high esti- 
mate of Gen. LEE as a man and of his ability as a soldier. His 



60 Address of Mr. Ciunmiugs, of New York, on the 

praise was strong and unstinted, and no one will question its 
sincerity. Mr. Speaker, what more need I add than to say that 
in all the acts and relations of life, as son and soldier, as hus- 
band and father, as private citizen and as Representative of the 
people, as friend and as Christian, our departed colleague left a 
memory we may well cherish and an example we may well 
follow. 



Address of Mr. Cummings, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: Great as is our country, its history is com 
paratively brief. Though brief, it is exceedingly instructive. 
So far as there can be an outcome in ever-recurring events, il 
is the outcome of a tremendous social and political struggle. 
Sir, it hardly suits the occasion to refer to the origin of this 
struggle or to trace its progress, but the effort for popular gov- 
ernment is discernible through many centuries. As we come 
nearer to our time it becomes more intelligent and determined. 
Our great Declaration was its best pronunciamento. Our writ- 
ten Constitution was its most concise expression. The events 
that produced them founded a normal school for patriotism. 
In it was perfected a new departure. Fealty to lord and king 
was supplanted by fealty to human rights. Proclaimed in 
the council chamber, these rights had to be won in the field. 
Yorktown completed our first endeavor at nation-making; 
we graduated masters at Appomattox. The first proclaimed 
the prowess of the Confederation, the second testified to the 
strength of the Union. Both astonished the world. Both 
transpired in Virginia. 

Conspicuous in this analogue of our history were the Lees of 
Virginia. They have a lineage too illustrious for praise. Its 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 61 

escutcheons aie too bright for adornment. It reaches back for 
centuries loyal to honor and to truth. Him we mourn to-day 
was a gifted scion of that great name. His highest distinction 
was won in Confederate arms. 

Thank God, I can now speak of our civil war with satisfac- 
tion and not with reluctance. I allude to it with a satisfaction 
akin to that one feels in gazing upon a plain fertilized by an 
inundation. Flowers spring up, birds sing, and golden grain 
nods in the sunlight. But our civil war was more like an 
upheaval than like a deluge. It shook every timber in the 
grand structure with which we had surprised the world. Other 
governments have fallen of their own weight; our matchless 
edifice could not be shattered by an explosion. 

Both contestants stood guard over the popular principle and 
would not let it be mined. They were instructed in the same 
school and by the same teacher. Local privilege was as strong 
with the one as with the other. The dispute was whether the 
Union should endure the strain of the race and slavery issue. 
The long and vexing argument was adjourned to the battlefield. 
In no other respect was our system even threatened. This 
close connection at the root made the angry divergence begin 
to assimilate at the very outset. 

So kindred was it, that when Grant met his heroic opponent 
at Appomattox he says that he fell into such a reunion with 
him that he had twice to be reminded of the occasion that 
brought them together. He then conformed to it, and treated 
those who surrendered not as conquered, but as reclaimed. 
Lincoln went further. He found a Confederate legislature 
ready-made to his hand, and promptly permitted it to repair 
the situation. In thus mingling the gray with the blue he 
was neither color-blind nor purblind. He knew what he was 



62 Address of Mr. Ciimmings, of New York, on the 

doing. He desired to blend them, as emblematic of a more 
perfect Union. Possibly the Confederate legislature suited his 
purpose best. 

After this testimonial it looks to me something like treason 
to that great name to try to exclude Confederate worth from 
the annals of the strife or from the glory of its grand consum- 
mation. Neither act nor actor can be profitably spared. 

Mr. Speaker, the other day in this very Hall I laid a chaplet 
on the bier of a dead comrade. To-day I am trying to com- 
memorate the virtues of a Confederate colleague. Both died 
while members of this House. That both were my country- 
men warms my heart. As my countrymen I can make no 
invidious distinction. If living neither would permit it, and 
he is more reckless than I who would profane the memory of 
either. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said that I could speak of the civil 
war with satisfaction and not with reluctance. The occasion 
prompted me to say so. The occasion requires that, as a Union 
soldier, I should state my reasons. We learn from experience, 
and war is the toughest kind of experience. When it raised 
its horrid front and began its work of seeming devastation, we 
shrank back from its terrible promise. The world looked to 
see us dismembered; but the great Republic, like a daring 
cruiser, emerged from the tempest sound from keel to truck. 
Not a brace swung loose, not a plank was sprung, no spar was 
shivered. Within there had to be readjustment. Aloft the 
Stars and Stripes rose and fell in graceful recognition of the 
trial. The thunder of her broadsides proclaimed the value of 
this object-lesson in nation-making. 

We had learned a juster appreciation of ourselves as a whole 
people, and if this were all, it was worth the tuition. But we 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 6& 

had besides garnered into our storehouse of knowledge vast 
consignments for the use of liberal economic government. We 
had infused into our laws, our language, and our institutions 
new vigor for conquest and for human enlightenment. Venality, 
that dogs great efforts, undoubtedly there was. But the high 
tide of the conflict showed no mercenary taint. On both sides 
it was urged from the highest motives of patriotism and of 
honor and in defense of the popular principle. That princi- 
ple with us means local self-government and representative 
union. The rebel yell was because they thought local gov- 
ernment in peril. The Federal huzza was for representative 
union. Together they were cheering the same deeply embedded 

sentiment. 

Those who would study the phenomenon must remember 
that where opinions approximate on parallel lines, but from 
some interest or sentiment refuse to coalesce, the passions are 
liable to ignite. Fusion then takes place in a terrible heat. 
The heat must be sufficient to remove the obstacles that the 
mass may become unified. We have as a result a firmly estab- 
lished representative union of local self-governments. The 
cooling and finishing process has left no flaw. Sir, what sort 
of a soldier must he be who is not proud of having been tem- 
pered in such a trial? If after the unmatched tournament this 
is not the spirit of victor and vanquished, then the lights of 
chivalry are burnt out and magnanimity is no more. 

Mr. Speaker, I know of no greater praise of a life than to 
say it was one of honest endeavor. Whatever faculties com- 
prise it, this is the scope of human duty. When to this is added 
a conscience adequate to all the suggestions of a great and busy 
career, the sum of human excellence has been reached. All 
this I believe in my soul can be truthfully said of "Rooney" 



64 Address of Mr. dimming s, of New York, on the 

LEE. "Rooney" was his father's term of endearment, which 
all who knew him, without distinction of age, race, or sex, de- 
lighted to apply to him when absent. When present, it was 
always "general." A thorough soldier, there was an idyllic 
strain in his nature. He was essentially rural in his tastes. 
He loved the wheat fields and tobacco plantations of his native 
State. Its very air seemed to inspire him. 

The Blue Ridge was to him the perfection of natural beauty. 
He was warm in his friendships and true to his kinships. Al- 
ways dignified, there was a heartiness in his greetings that was 
irresistible. He was as broad as his acres. Riding or driving 
over his vast estate or in its vicinity, his cheerful halloo rang 
in the ears of those who had not seen him, and the cheery swing 
of his hat, though paid to all, was a cherished compliment. If 
the spirit of mortal be proud, it was not his spirit. Courteous, 
sympathetic, unobtrusive, patriotic, knightly, and beneficent, 
he was a part of the soil of Virginia itself. He had the loving 
hospitality that would take all into the march of progress. How 
much of these qualities was innate, how much he drew from his 
high lineage, how much from the teachings of his illustrious 
father, can never be known, but he blended them in a halo that 
will not soon fade from his memory. 

Sir, others have spoken of the incidents of his life and of his 
unabated fidelity to its claims. I can not add to his record. I 
have met him in battle array; I have embraced him with a sol- 
dier's warmth. We entered Congress together; we have fought 
here side by side. It has fallen to my lot to eulogize him. This 
I will venture: It would mar the catalogue of bright names of 
which America is so proud if his were omitted from the roll. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 65 



Address of Mr. Cowles, of North Carolina. 

Mr. Speaker: Truly "in the midst of life we are in death." 
There is scarcely one of the associates and colleagues of Gen. 
William H. F. LEE who knew him here and up to the closing 
days of the late Congress who would have been deterred by the 
thought of personal risk from exchanging the chances of life or 
death with him for a few months; and yet, in so short a time 
the dread summoner, who soon or late is to call us all, has taken 
him from this life into that which fadeth not, neither does it die. 

The hand of the reaper 

Takes the ears that are hoary, 
But the voice of the weeper 

Wails manhood in glory. 
The autumn winds rushing 

Waft the leaves that are searest, 
But our flower was in flushing 

When blighting was nearest. 

Yes, death, the unsolved and unsolvable mystery, has envel- 
oped him, and he has passed from our view never more to be 
seen and known of men on this earth. But yesterday the living, 
moving, brave, sympathetic, generous friend, and now, alas, 
but a memory — and yet a memory dear to all who knew and 
appreciated his noble attributes of heart and mind ; a memory 
which has left its impress upon his fellow-men for nobility of 
character; a memory which can not wholly fade, but must in- 
fluence for good not only his own immediate posterity, but all 
those who may come after him. 

My acquaintance with Gen. LEE began in the early part of 
the war between the States. It was upon a night march, as we 
rode with the advance guard of the army, where we might ex- 
H. Mis. 320 5 



66 Address of Mr. Cowles, of North Carolina, on the 

pect at any moment a hostile volley. He related to me in a low 
impressive tone of voice an experience which had occurred to 
him when his command by reason of surprise had met with 
some disaster. What impressed me most at the time was that, 
although others must have been to some extent culpable, he 
took all the blame upon himself, and had not a word of com- 
plaint for either officer or man who served under him. 

This trait of magnanimity, such a splendid companion to 
personal courage, I found afterwards to be characteristic of the 
man. 

Though springing from a long line of heroic and patriotic 
ancestors, he had not a particle of pretentious pride, but to all 
men, privates in the ranks as well as officers, so that they were 
but brave and good soldiers, he always found " time enough for 
courtesy." He never tried to appropriate another man's lau- 
rels, but he possessed in a high degree that quality of courage 
which is so well described by Emerson : 

Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend 

To mean devices for a sordid end. 

Courage, an independent spark from Heaven's bright throne, 

By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone. 

Great in itself, not praises of the crowd, 

Above all vice, it stoops not to be proud. 

Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above, 

By which those great in war are great in love. 

The spring of all brave acts is seated here, 

As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear. 

In his friendship he was gentle and tender as one who is full 
of love and human sympathy. You might have thought him 
better fitted for the paths of peace, and yet upon the battlefield 
he was brave as the bravest. Whenever and wherever duty 
called him his personal safety was by him never considered. 
Often have I seen him in the thickest of the fight, by his pres- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 67 

ence and personal direction cheering and encouraging both 
officers and men. Though the son of the general in chief of 
the army, he took no favor by it. 

He never took advantage of his rank to keep to the rear and 
send his regiments in. You could always measure his estimate 
of you by the manner in which he met you. The soul of can- 
dor, his heart shone in his eye, and placing a high estimate 
upon manhood, he loved all in whom he recognized it. For 
about two years during the latter part of the war I served in his 
command, and had every opportunity to observe and know him. 

My acquaintance with him here was but a revival of old 
memories. I always loved him as one who — 

Spake no slander ; no, nor listened to it. 

***** 
Who reverenced his conscience as his king. 

Who, if he committed an error or wronged any man, was swift 
to redress it; never laying his blame at another man's door. 
Who excelled in all the virtues which go to make up a beauti- 
ful private life in all the essentials of faithful friendship and 
truthful character; who lived — 

Thro' all this tract of years, 
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life. 

Think for a moment how much better and happier every one 
would be if all men were earnestly to strive to live up to this 
high standard and how much of pain would be spared the 
world. He was one of the most faithful members upon this 
floor; faithful to the public interest, and whenever any prop- 
osition was under consideration which specially concerned his 
own people, they always had in him an able advocate and 
strong defender. 

He is gone! sincere Christian, loving husband and father, 



68 Address of Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, on the 

trusted friend. The life that was given him has been taken 
away. The widow and the orphan mourn, and their grief is 
our grief; but a merciful Father has given him more than he 
has taken away, and this strength and comfort through the 
tender mercy of our Saviour is theirs — 

I am the lesurrection, and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. 



Address of Mr, Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 

Mr. Speaker: I never had the pleasure of Gen. LEE'S 
acquaintance, so far as I could recall, until he entered this 
House as a Representative of the district which lies just across 
the river; but there were many things in common between us 
which soon caused a kindliness of feeling much warmer 
than the frequency of our association would indicate. It hap- 
pened that we were almost of the same age, born within a few 
weeks of each other, and that on all great questions of the day 
we were singularly alike in our opinions, and, if I may use such 
an expression, even in our prejudices. 

Amid all the trials of life we two found we had adhered to 
simple beliefs of those Southern homes in which we were the 
reared ; that no advance in civilization, no pretense of progress, 
had ever obscured our views as to the olden beliefs and the 
simpler truths which had been inwrought into our being by 
the venerable fathers and beloved mothers with whom we had 
been blessed. The substratum of our beliefs was precisely the 
same. And we found that we were not ashamed of that sab- 
stratum, that we were not given to apologizing for adhering to 
so-called ' ' obsolete ' ' traditions or to creeds ' ' that were passing 
out of fashion. ' ' 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 69 

We also found that on the political questions of the day we 
were similarly in accord. We believed in the same political 
principles. And so it was a very rare occurrence that when 
the roll was called in this House we were not found voting-, 
even on what seemed to be trivial matters, upon the same side. 
It was not strange that with these coincidences of belief and 
with our having both served in the Confederate army and the 
local accident of the nearness of our seats which threw us 
together, there grew up a regard greater than was indicated by 
our association outside of this Hall. 

If I were to select in my acquaintance him who, as much as 
any other, deserved the title, I would say of Gen. LEE that he 
was a gentleman. All that had concurred in producing him 
was of the best. The blood which gave him life, the soil out 
of which he grew, the kindly influences which always sur- 
rounded him, the molding powers to which he had been sub- 
jected — all were of the noblest. A son of such houses, reared 
at such knees, influenced by such powers, he passed early un- 
der the influences of Harvard. Later he took his young ex- 
perience as a soldier under Albert Sidney Johnston. He began 
his civil life in a delicious home, with the love of an exquisite 
young wife. And in the Confederate service he was associated 
with the best and the bravest volunteers of the Old Dominion 
herself. 

It was not strange that the product of such influences should 
be a gentleman. All that was courageous, all that was loyal 
to truth, all that was courteous to those with whom he came 
in contact, all that was gentle and kindly was not only the 
heritage which he received with his name and his blood, but 
it was developed by all the environments which he was so 
fortunate as to have surround him. If I were to select a char- 



70 Address of Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, on the 

acter of which it might be said that it was round, without an- 
gles, even without salient points, it would be his — not because 
he was weak, but because the calmness, the serenity, and the 
magnificence (if I may use a word that seems to be hyperbolic) 
of the equipoise of his qualities made each of them seem less 
important than it would have seemed if other qualities had 
been less. 

It would not be extravagant to apply to him the paraphrase 
of the apostolic description of a Christian gentleman — loving 
without dissimulation ; abhorring the evil ; clec.ving to the 
honorable; preferring to confer honor rather than to receive it; 
earnest in the work of life, and careful of time and opportunity 
to labor; hopeful of all good; patient in tribulation; forbearing 
to resent trespass; charitable in thought and word, as in deed; 
given to hospitality; at peace with his own conscience and with 
God. 

We live, Mr. Speaker, in a heroic age. I constantly hear 
of this being an age of materialism, of the worship of the 
"almighty dollar." I challenge all the past, in all the en- 
deavors of man, to reach a higher level, to equal the heroism 
of the age in which we have been called to perform our part — 
the devotion to duty, the readiness to make sacrifices, the will- 
ingness to give all for the truth which have marked our gen- 
eration — the era in which we have to act our part. 

This simple, kindly, unaffected, modest gentleman ; this 
man, with his sweet calm smile, who met us every day, pass- 
ing in and out with a certain reticence of modesty, was him- 
self but the type of the age in which he lived and of the peo- 
ple from whom he sprang. All modest as he was, he had 
given up everything at the call of duty. All simple and 
kindly as he seemed to be, he had at the head of charging 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 71 

squadrons captured cannon, and with more heroic endurance 
had lain without complaint in the cell of solitary confinement. 
He carried about with him in the simple modesty of his every- 
day life the heart that at a moment's notice was ready to still 
its beating at the call of duty; and with the same simplicity, 
with the same freedom from ostentation, with the same deli- 
cious smile, he would have walked into the jaws of death if it 
had become him as a gentleman to do so. 

To live in such an age, to be associated with such men — and, 
thank God, they are not uncommon amongst us — the bar at 
which I practice, the tables at which I sit in the kindliness of 
social intercourse, the men with whom I have been blessed 
enough to be called into contact, the very strangers who call 
on business at my house, rank among them men just like unto 
him. I say to live in such an age, to be associated with such 
men, to play a part, however obscure, in such drama, make 
life worth the living; make the hereafter nobler for him who 
has been so blessed. 

Mr. Speaker, to-day, in the midst of this the ending of the 
nineteenth century, we who will soon pass away, we who are 
but the remnants of a generation of war, can proudly hand over 
to those who shall come after us the example of lives that in 
war feared nothing but God, in peace strove for nothing but 
the good of the people. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



EULOGIES. 



March 4, 1892. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before the Senate 
resolutions from the House of Representatives, which will be 
read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, February 6, i8q2. 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, that opportunity be 
given for tributes to the memory of Hon. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, late a 
Representative from the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, As a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, and in recog- 
nition of his eminent abilities as a distinguished public servant, that the House, at the 
conclusion of these memorial proceedings, shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Mr. Barbour. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions which I 
send to the desk. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 
The resolutions were read, as follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow the announcement of the 
death of Hon. William H. F. Lee, late a Representative from the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended, in order that fitting 
tribute may be paid to his memory. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect the Senate shall, at the conclusion 

of these ceremonies, adjourn. 

73 



74 Address of Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, on the 



Address of Mr. Barbour, of Virginia. 

Mr. President: The resolutions just read were passed by the 
House of Representatives on the 6th day of February last in 
respect to the memory of William H. F. LEE, deceased, late 
a member of that body from the Eighth Congressional district 
of Virginia. 

Before asking the Senate to adopt the resolutions it is incum- 
bent upon me, as one of the Senators from Virginia, as it is in 
harmony with my own personal feelings, to submit some re- 
marks in explanation of their purpose and object; a sad and 
mournful duty to be performed on my part. 

Gen. LEE was my immediate successor in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, and served with ability and efficiency in both the 
Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. He was reelected to the 
present Congress, but his career was arrested by that higher 
and supreme Power to which we must all yield, and on the 15th 
of October, 1891, he departed this life at his home in the county 
of Fairfax, and in the midst of his family and friends. 

I do not consider it necessary in this presence or on this occa- 
sion to go into much detail touching the life and character of 
the deceased. 

The full and eloquent tributes paid to his memory in the 
House of Representatives show the high appreciation in which 
he was held by his associates in that body, and express in far 
more fitting terms than I could employ their estimate of his 
character, services, and virtues. 

Gen. LEE came from a distinguished lineage. Two of the 
family signed our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independ- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 75 

ence, and another was Attorney-General under Gen. Wash- 
ington. 

On the paternal side he could refer to his distinguished grand- 
father, Gen. Henry Lee, of the Revolutionary army, who was 
known as Light-Horse Harry, the commandant of Lee's Legion, 
so conspicuous in the annals of that period. His maternal 
grandfather was the late G. W. Parke Custis, of Arlington, the 
stepson of Gen. Washington, and familiarly called in his day 
the child of Mount Vernon. 

His father, Gen. R. E. Lee, the chief military figure on his 
side in the late civil war, was too well known for comment at 
my hands. It is the boast of some of the old baronial families 
of England that their ancestors rode with William the Con- 
queror at Hastings. To a certain extent the pride of ancestry 
is an ennobling sentiment, and Virginians must be pardoned 
when tempted to refer to the illustrious names which their 
State in the past has furnished to the nation. The name of Lee 
has been a household word in Virginia for three generations of 
men. In the death of Gen. William H. F. Lee the State has 
lost one of her truest and worthiest sons and the Federal Gov- 
ernment a faithful and patriotic Representative. 

Although acquainted personally with Gen. LEE for many 
years, it was only within a year or two before his death that I 
had the opportunity to appreciate fully the high personal qual- 
ities of the man and to understand the real nobility of his 
nature. The more I saw of him the higher became my respect 
and admiration. He grew upon me with closer contact and 
more intimate association. 

I was greatly impressed with his invariable courtesy of man- 
ner and great amiability and kindness of heart, to which was 
added a knightly bearing and cordiality of greeting which, 



76 Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida, on the 

combined, made Gen. LEE with all classes of society an impos- 
ing and attractive figure. 

He has gone to his last resting place, mourned by his family 
and friends and lamented by an extensive acquaintance through- 
out the country. He had filled the measure of his duties in 
every respect, and was entitled, as he passed from the stage of 
action, to the plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant." 



Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida. 

Mr. President : My acquaintance with William Henry 
Fitzhugh LEE commenced in the summer of 1854, when we 
met at Cambridge as members of the new freshman class at 
Harvard College. He was just then entering his eighteenth 
year, was well grown for his age, tall, vigorous, and robust, 
open and frank in his address, kind and genial in his manners. 
He entered upon his college life with many advantages in his 
favor. The name of Lee was already upon the rolls of the 
university, for other representatives of different branches of the 
family had entered and graduated in the years gone by and had 
left pleasant memories behind them. His distinguished line- 
age made him a welcome guest in the older families of the 
University city, and of Boston, its near neighbor, who felt a 
just pride in the historic and traditional associations connected 
with the earlier history of the country, and many of the influ- 
ential members of the class belonged to such families. 

He was rather older than the average age of his classmates, 
and his life had been spent amid surroundings that had enabled 
him to see a good deal of society and the world, so that he 
brought with him into his college life a more matured mind 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 77 

and a greater insight than the student usually possesses at the 
threshold of his career. He had enjoyed excellent advantages 
in preparing for the entering examinations, and was well 
grounded in the languages as well as mathematics, so that he 
entered the class well fitted for the course of study to be pur- 
sued. Thus, from the first, he was prominent in the univer- 
sity, and soon became popular among his classmates, and his 
prominence and popularity were maintained during his stay 
among us. 

This was due not to superior distinction in any particular 
study or in any one feature of college life, but rather to his 
general standing and characteristics. He kept pace with his 
classmates in the recitation room, not so much by hard and 
continuous study as by his quick comprehension and ready 
grasp of the subject in hand and the general fund of knowl- 
edge at his command. He was of a friendly and companion- 
able nature, and there were abundant opportunities in a large 
class to develop this disposition, cultivate social intercourse, 
and strengthen the bonds of good fellowship. He had been 
accustomed to an outdoor life in his Virginia home, and his 
manly training had given him an athletic frame which required 
constant and vigorous exercise. This he sought in active sports 
on the football ground and in the class and college boat clubs, 
where he was welcomed as a valuable auxiliary. 

In a large university — and Harvard had gained that rank even 
as far back as those days — there are various fields of action, 
and other honors are recognized than those marked on the cat- 
alogue or contained in the degrees. The graduate who excels 
in mathematics, the languages, the arts and sciences, is decked 
with the highest honor on commencement day, but there are 
unwritten honors given by general consent of classmates to 



78 Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida, on the 

those who have developed a superiority in any mental or phys- 
ical excellence. When in after life the members of a class 
meet on some public college anniversary or gather together at 
a reunion and the memories and traditions of college life are 
talked over anew, the merits of those who excelled in pleasant 
companionship, in kindly bearing, in generous conduct towards 
their associates, in outdoor games and sports requiring strength 
and dexterity, are pleasant subjects to dwell upon, even if the 
possessors failed to stand among the highest upon the roll of 
scholarship. 

Thus it was that LEE established himself among his asso- 
ciates during the three years that he remained among us, and 
though he contented himself with a medium standing in schol- 
arship and exhibited no ambition to gain a high rank upon the 
college rolls, he won the regard and confidence and respect of 
all his classmates and held a warm place in the hearts of those 
with whom he was most intimate. 

Towards the close of our junior year, in the early part of 
1857, upon the recommendation of Gen. Winfield Scott, he 
received a commission as second lieutenant in the Army, and 
was assigned to the Sixth Regiment of Infantry, which was 
ordered into active service on the Western frontier, and took 
part in the expedition to Utah which was commanded by Col. 
Albert Sidney Johnston. L,EE accepted this appointment, 
closed his connection with the college, and our paths in life 
diverged for more than thirty years. 

In 1887 we both became members of the Fiftieth Congress. 
I well remember his coming to me, with kindly face and out- 
stretched hand, on the first day of our session in December, as I 
sat in my seat in this Chamber, expressing pleasure at meeting 
me after so many years of separation and satisfaction that we 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 79 

were to have opportunities of renewing the acquaintance and 
friendship of our early days. Though the exacting duties of 
Congressional life gave me fewer opportunities of associating 
with him than I could have wished, yet I saw much of him dur- 
ing the years we spent here together, and I shall always remem- 
ber those occasions with satisfaction. Sometimes it was only a 
word in passing, a shake of the hand, a brief conference on pub- 
lic business, but whether the interview was brief or prolonged 
his manner and conduct were always kind and friendly and 

sincere. 

While we were together in Congress he often referred to our 
college life and its associations, and remembered them with evi- 
dent satisfaction. He became a member of the Harvard Club 
here in Washington, and I recall a pleasant evening when he 
was one of the after-dinner speakers there. In the summer of 
1888 he went to Cambridge, to revisit the old scenes and once 
more meet his friends and associates of the olden time. He 
attended the commencement exercises and spoke pleasantly at 
the class supper. His classmates who then met him will long 
cherish the remembrance of that last visit, his hearty greetings, 
his cordial manners, the interest he manifested. 

The renewal of our acquaintance soon satisfied me that the 
experience of life had strengthened and developed all that was 
good and noble and manly in the young student. The same 
warmth and cordiality which had endeared him to his class- 
mates won the regard and affection of his associates here. The 
same general ability and rotundity of character which had made 
him prominent in the little world of college life made him use- 
ful and influential in various lines of duty in the wide field of 
Congressional legislation. 

During the intervening years the manly bearing, the phys- 



80 Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida, on the 

ical superiority, the nobility of spirit which had characterized 
him in the earlier days had made him a leader among men 
when the storm of war raged over the land. Brief as were the 
days of the unacknowledged Southern Confederacy, his name 
was enrolled in bright letters upon the pages of its history, 
and his brave deeds will in future days be chronicled in song 
and story by those who admire true courage and recognize all 
that was gallant and noble and heroic in the lives of all those 
who fought on both sides of our great struggle as worthy of 
preservation and commemoration. 

When LEE first left college his military duties, as has been 
already stated, carried him to the far West, and he there saw 
some rough service. The Utah expedition was a training 
school for soldiers and generals, and many who afterwards 
gained renown and fame, under the different standards were 
there associated together in a common duty. Besides the leader 
and commander, Col. Johnston, were Robert B. Lee, Hardee, 
Thomas, Kirby Smith, Palmer, Stoneman, Fitz Lee, and Hood. 
When the Army first entered upon this service there was a small 
cloud of war in the horizon, but it soon cleared away, and the 
company to which LEE was attached was assigned to a dull and 
monotonous routine of garrison life. This possessed no attrac- 
tions for the young lieutenant, and there were other influences 
drawing him towards his native State. He resigned his com- 
mission, returned to Virginia, and settled at the White House, 
in New Kent County, where George Washington had married 
the widow Custis. 

The plantation had descended to her son, George Washing- 
ton Parke Custis, and from him through LEE'S mother to the 
grandson. He soon established his cousin, Miss Wickham, as 
queen of this historic home, and he was here with his little 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 81 

family amid these surroundings, with everything to make life 
attractive, when Virginia and her sister States of the South 
passed their ordinances of secession and sent delegates to 
Montgomery to unite in the attempt to form a Southern Con- 
federacy. LEE never doubted that allegiance was due first to 
his State, and when war followed he drew his sword in defense 
of Virginia. 

As long as the strife continued he avoided no danger, he 
shunned no peril, he feared no adversary. 

Now with a company, now a squadron, now a regiment, now 
a brigade, now a division of cavalry behind him, he went upon 
the march, formed the line of battle, or rode into the enemy's 
lines. Whatever duty was assigned to him, he entered upon its 
discharge with energy and vigor. In the varying fortunes of 
war he was wounded, captured, held as a hostage ; but the day 
of recovery and exchange came, and he once more headed the 
brave followers who loved and honored and trusted him, and 
during the last year of the struggle he again shared their 
hardships and privations and dangers. But the end came at 
last, the issue was settled, the arbitrament of war was decided 
adversely, and he sheathed his sword and returned to the place 
where his home had been. 

The year 1865 marked a low ebb in the fortunes of the 

Southern people, and perhaps it may not be unprofitable to 

dwell briefly upon their conduct when under the shadow of 

defeat and disaster. The distinguished father of him to whose 

memory we are this day paying tribute went from the head of 

a great army to train the new generation of young men of the 

South in the halls of a university to usefulness in the various 

walks of citizenship. The students who enjoyed the privilege 

of sitting at the feet of this grand college president there 
H. Mis. 320 6 



82 Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida, on the 

learned lessons of patriotism. They were advised to build up 
the places left waste and desolate, and to look hopefully forward 
to a reunited country and a more prosperous future. 

Whatever public disappointment or private grief or loss he 
suffered was buried in his own breast. He advised his country- 
men that the great questions which had long divided the 
country, and upon which opinions had been so diverse that 
legislative debate and administrative action had failed in find- 
ing a solution, had been finally settled by the sword, and that 
henceforth their duty was to the Union restored and indis- 
soluble. 

With so illustrious an example the immediate restoration of 
peace and good order all over the South is not to be wondered 
at. The annals of all nations may be searched in vain for a 
parallel. It is an easy task for men who have accomplished all 
they desired to lay down their arms and return to their homes 
and resume their former avocations. 

The Southern soldier did all this after failure and defeat. 
The cause was lost ; his efforts availed nothing. The homes 
of many were in ashes ; sorrow was in every household ; many 
were stripped of their all. The labor system of the country 
was destroyed ; commerce was dead. Many had not seed to 
plant their lands. The workshop, the manufactory, the ship- 
yard were silent as the grave. The arts of peace seemed to 
have perished. The soldiers were disbanded without the means 
of reaching their homes, and the few survivors of those who 
went forth with bright hopes, proud and confident in their 
strength, returned one by one weary and footsore and disheart- 
ened. 

The history of other nations would have suggested to the 
historian that the result must be open riots and secret assas- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 83 

sinations, a reign of violence and terror, years of turoulence 
and lawlessness, before society would settle down to its former 
condition. But how different was the result. The parole upon 
which the soldier was released was in no instance violated. 
The situation was accepted without a murmur or complaint. 
The laws were obeyed. The terms imposed were acceded to. 
Soon the busy hum of industry was- heard through the land. 
The arts of peace were revived. Agriculture and trade once 
again flourished, and our- fair country began to bloom again 
into something like its old-time beauty and prosperity. 

There were few Southern soldiers who returned to a greater 
desolation than did our late associate, Gen. LEE. Fate seemed 
to have done its worst. The beloved wife and the two dear 
children who had made his home at the "White House" a 
paradise had died in 1863, while he was held as a prisoner and 
a hostage at Fort Lafayette and Fort Monroe. The place 
had been occupied by Union troops; the mansion, with all its 
surroundings, had been destroyed by fire, and, as has been well 
said by another, there was " not a blade of grass left to mark 
the culture of more than a hundred years." Had he been an 
ordinary man he would have sunk with the load of sorrow and 
trouble which weighed him down. But he had a brave heart, 
which defeat and affliction and disaster with united effort could 
not conquer. 

With the same noble spirit which had actuated his father, 
the elder Lee, he threw aside his discouragement and took up 
the duties of life and citizenship anew. He had made himself 
famous as a soldier ; he now began in earnest to cultivate the 
arts of peace. It was no easy task, for the era of reconstruc- 
tion immediately succeeded the war, and only those who were 
actually under' its ban can realize the burdens and hardships it 



84 Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida, on the 

entailed upon an unfortunate people emerging from a disastrous 
conflict. 

He rebuilt and reestablished his home at the White House 
plantation. He was married November 27, 1867, to Miss Mary 
Tabb, daughter of Hon. George W. Boiling, of Petersburg. 
In 1874 the family removed to Ravensworth, in Fairfax County. 

At both these places he cultivated his broad acres and inter- 
ested himself in all matters relating to agricultural progress 
and development. He advanced and promoted these interests 
as president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society. He 
represented his county for a term in the State senate, but declined 
a reelection, and returned to his plantation and the enjoyment 
of home life. After a few years of quiet he was called, in 1886, 
to a new field of activity by neighbors and political friends, 
who desired his services at the national capital, and he became 
the Representative from the Alexandria district in the Fiftieth 
Congress, and he was in his third term, when, on the 15th day 
of October, 1891, the hand of death removed him from his 
career of usefulness. For weeks his strong constitution and 
vigorous frame had resisted disease in his Ravensworth home. 
All that kindness and skill could suggest was done in his 
behalf, but skill and kindness were of no avail, and he bade 
adieu to home and family, companions and associates, earthly 
duties and surroundings, and entered upon his eternal rest. 
His mortal life was closed. 

I well remember a day spent in his company nearly four 
years ago, and its occurrences gave me an opportunity to wit- 
ness the regard in which he was held by those among whom he 
had lived and to whom he was best known. It was on Decora- 
tion Day, in a section of country where he had seen service 
as a soldier, not far from where he had lived in his early child- 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 85 

hood. He was the orator of the occasion. Many of his old 
companions in arms and members of their families were among 
his audience, and they listened eagerly as he made appropriate 
reference to the departed comrades who slept under the little 
hillocks near by them, bright and fragrant with the flowers of 
early summer, which the loving hands of woman and childhood 
had heaped upon them. As he descended from the platform 
he was surrouuded by old and young, who thronged about him 
to shake his hand or give expression to a friendly greeting. 
Admiration and affection were expressed upon their counte- 
nances for the brave man before them, whose gallant deeds had 
been told at every fireside in the country around, and who was 
loved and honored because, in addition to his own merits and 
virtues, he represented the great leader whose name was the 
embodiment of a precious memory. 

I have portrayed William Henry Fitzhugh L,EE as a 
student, a soldier, a planter, a public man representing his 
people in the State legislature and the National Congress. 

Some have united in paying tribute to his memory because 
they were born and reared in the State which gave him birth, 
some because they shared with him the hardships and dangers 
of his military career, some because they were associated with • 
him in Congressional life and committee work. But while I 
take a great pride in all that he accomplished in the after 
years, it is more pleasant to me to recollect him as the student, 
for in that relation I was first drawn into companionship with 
him; it was during that period of our lives that I first learned 
to regard him, and my tribute is to my classmate and friend 
of auld lang syne. May he rest in peace in the bosom of the 
honored State he loved so well and served so faithfully. 



86 Address of Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, on the 



Address of Mr. Stewart, of Nevada. 

Mr. President : The biography of William H. F. LEE has 
been furnished by his colleagues and associates. I do not pro- 
pose to dwell upon the details of his public or private career, 
or that of his distinguished ancestors, who acted so conspicuous 
a part in the history of the American Colonies and in the trying 
times of the Revolution by which our independence was gained. 

I had the good fortune to form the acquaintance of Gen. Lee 
and his estimable wife at the beginning of the Fiftieth Congress. 
I was strongly impressed with his noble presence, and his 
genial, modest, and dignified bearing. He seemed to me an 
ideal specimen of true American manhood. His wife was a 
lady whose appearance at once attracted attention and whose 
qualities of head and heart charmed and delighted friends and 
associates. He was a devoted husband. His tender and gentle 
bearing toward his wife were natural and unaffected. The 
daily life and conduct of both were a conspicuous example of 
the benign influence of a husband and wife who love, honor, 
and respect each other. 

My impressions of him were so favorable and agreeable as to 
create a desire on my part to cultivate his acquaintance and 
know more of his character. We met frequently, and dis- 
cussed freely the social and political topics which engaged the 
attention of members of Congress at the national capital. He 
was modest and unobtrusive in the expression of his opinions; 
but as I knew him better I was profoundly impressed with the 
scope and breadth of his information. 

His judgment of men and measures was as free from local 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 87 

prejudice and partisan bias as any man's I ever met. He was 
induced by his generous nature to attribute good rather than 
unworthy motives to those with whom he differed. He was 
honest, true, and unsuspicious. On all occasions he expressed 
attachment to the Union of the States, and manifested a patri- 
otic devotion to the Constitution as the charter of our liberties. 

He was a brave soldier, and fought on the losing side in a 
war that convulsed the continent and astonished the civilized 
world; and as a brave soldier he accepted without reservation 
the verdict of the war. It is to be regretted that his heroic 
services were not on the side of the Union, but the conditions 
which placed him in hostility to the flag of the United States 
are forever removed. Every cause which produced that ter 
rible conflict was eradicated and obliterated in carnage and 
blood. The horrors of that fratricidal war are now history. 
The glorious results achieved are being realized in the aboli- 
tion of slavery; in the Union of the States restored, strength- 
ened, and cemented; in the respect, confidence, and just esti- 
mation of the people of all the sections for each other, and in 
the establishment beyond question of the capacity of the citizens 
of the Republic to dare and to do in great emergencies what to 
all the world seemed impossible. 

To-day the virtue, the patriotism, and the renown of the 
fathers of the Revolution and the founders of our free institu- 
tions are the common heritage of all the people, both North 
and South. The gallant and daring exploits of Legion Harry 
or Light-Horse Harry Lee, the grandsire of the deceased, in- 
spire the same admiration and respect in the sons of the North 
as in the sons of the South. It is most gratifying that the de- 
scendants of the comrades in war and associates in council 
who gained the independence and established the Government 



88 Address of Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, on the 

of the United States are again united in stronger bonds of in- 
terest, good fellowship, and respect than ever before existed. 

Generations to come will enjoy not only the fruits of the Rev- 
olutionary struggle and the establishment of constitutional lib- 
erty, but they will be blessed with liberty that knows no slavery 
and with a Union forever indivisible, and they will contemplate 
with no partisan feeling the sacrifices which were necessary to 
secure such results. The type of manly virtue of which our de- 
ceased friend was a conspicuous example is one of the best fruits 
of free institutions. His death in the prime of his manhood and 
in the days of his usefulness was a great loss to the country and 
a bereavement to his family for which there is no earthly com- 
pensation. But he has left for them in his good name, his un- 
impeachable character, and his many virtues an inheritance 
more valuable than gold. 

He has gone where all must soon follow. The wealth of his 
example is an inspiration to the living to emulate his virtues, 
enjoy a conscience void of offense, and leave to surviving rel- 
atives the inheritance of an honored name. Such an ambition 
is worthy of an American citizen, and the value to humanity 
of such a life as that of Gen. L,e;e can hardly be overestimated. 

Why should death be regarded as a calamity? It is the in- 
evitable fate of all the living. May it not be a part of life? 
The hope of immortality is the greatest boon conferred upon 
the living. On an occasion like this words will not soothe the 
grief of those who are near and dear to the deceased. Their 
consolation must be in the hope of reunion beyond the grave. 



Life and Character of William H. R Lee. 89 



ADDRESS OF MR. COLQUITT, OF GEORGIA. 

Mr. President: It is a difficult and delicate task to draw with 
justice and propriety the character of a public man. Fulsome 
panegyrics have often been pronounced upon the character of 
the dead either out of flattery to the deceased or to gratify the 
ambitious desires of the living. 

In paving a tribute to William H. F. Lee I am not influ- 
enced by any such questionable views. To do honor to his 
memory I need only say what justice and truth dictate. There 
is little danger, in speaking of him, of committing the offense 
of exaggerated eulogy. There is more danger of doing the 
injustice of understatement in commemorating a character so 
rounded and symmetrical. 

As a son, Gen. LEE'S filial piety was so marked as to make 
him an example worthy of all imitation by the youth of his 
country. In every post of honor or trust to which he was called — 
and they were many and exalted ones — he met his engage- 
ments with such fidelity and courage as never to incur censure 
and seldom provoke criticism. 

His bearing as a private citizen was of such dignity and be- 
nevolence as to secure the love, while it evoked the admiration, 
of all who knew him. 

His character was made up of blended chivalry and courtesy 
and adorned with the mild luster of a religious faith. 

He was frank and open, plain and sincere, speaking only 
what he thought without reserve, and promising only what he 
designed to perform. 

As he was plain and sincere, so he was firm and steady in 
his purposes; courteous and affable, he was not influenced by 



DO Address of Mr. Colquitt, of Georgia, on the 

servile compliance to his company, approving or condemning 
as might be most agreeable to them. He was a man of courage 
and constancy, qualities which, after all, are the ornaments and 
defense of a man. 

He had in the highest degree the air, manners, and address 
of a man of quality; politeness with ease, dignity without 
pride, and firmness without the least alloy of roughness. He 
loved refined society, but he had great respect and sympathy for 
those who had been reared in simple habits and the toils of life. 

He possessed an even and equal temper of mind. Those 
who best knew him can testify of him what has often been 
asserted of his great father, that they never heard an acrimo- 
nious speech fall from his lips; that his whole temper was so 
controlled by justice and generosity that he was never known 
to disparage with an envious breath the fame of another or to 
withhold due praise of another's worth. 

Mr. President, the friends of Gen. LEE do not claim for him 
brilliant talents and the gifts of genius. It is doubtless a 
beneficent ordination of Providence that the best interests of 
society are not solely dependent on what in common parlance 
is called genius. Fortunately for the good of mankind, great 
gifts and powers of mind are not indispensable to our happiness 
or to a safe and salutary development of social conditions. 

Patient industry and impregnable virtue are the essential 
cardinal qualities that make the man, in the vast majority of 
cases, worthy of love and honor, and which conserve the best 
interests of the world. 

That man who in his career and relations to society has gone 
on from day to day and from trust to trust, never disappointing 
but always realizing every just expectation, it seems to me is 
the character who deserves of his fellow-men the highest meed 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 91 

of praise, and gives in his person and example the surest guar- 
anty that the world will be all the better for his agency in 
shaping its affairs. 

The friends of Gen. LEE enjoy the perfect assurance that in 
every walk of life, on every occasion when duty called him, 
his responses were ever marked by a dignified and intelligent 
performance of the tasks assigned him. 

What higher honor can we ask for him than this : that weighty 
as were the responsibilities that devolved upon him by inherit- 
ance and high as the expectations which were the natural im- 
plications of this inheritance, he fully and nobly met them. 
Much as was expected of him, he more than realized the claims 
and obligations of a noble lineage. His fellow-citizens and his 
contemporaries regard his career as an honor and his compan- 
ionship as a delight and a resource that adds poignancy to their 
grief in the loss of so loved and valued a friend. 

I might refer to the incidents of his military career to illus- 
trate his courage and fidelity, but it may not be considered ap- 
propriate to the time and the occasion. It is cheering, how- 
ever, to believe that in this exalted body there is not to be found 
that spirit of truculent uncharitableness which refuses any credit 
to an honorable adversary. 

Time, which touches all things with mellowing hand, has 
softened the recollections of past contests, and they who looked 
upon him as a foe now only remember the glory of the fight, 
and would join hands with us to weave the garland of his fame. 
Securely may the friends and admirers of this noble character 
rest in the belief that his name for generations to come will be 
enrolled in the glorious list of worthies that has for all time 
made the name of Virginia illustrious and among the foremost 
of all the commonwealths of the ages past. 



92 Address of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, on the 



ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

It was my good fortune, Mr. President, to know Gen. William 
H. F. LEE with the intimacy of personal friendship for more 
than a quarter of a century, and I can pass no higher encomium 
upon him than by saying he had all the qualities that consti- 
tute a true gentleman, a gentleman in the highest and best 
sense. He inherited from a very illustrious and distinguished 
ancestry a prestige rarely enjoyed in this country, and yet he 
was as unpretending, unaffected, and modest as the humblest 
man. His self-contained dignity of character never deserted 
him. His placid, well-balanced, well-poised equanimity always 
sustained him. 

It would be extravagant to say he inherited the command- 
ing abilities of his illustrious father, but it would be entirely 
within the line of a just criticism to affirm that he did inherit 
many of the highest characteristics and qualities of that great 
man. In personal demeanor, in that suave, gracious, consider- 
ate, self-respecting, and respectful bearing which give assur- 
ance of the perfect gentleman he very much resembled his 
father. He was always approachable and cordial, and yet I 
doubt if any man ever attempted an improper liberty or ven- 
tured undue familiarity with him. His high character and 
affability of manner protected him against such relations. 

In the late civil war we served side by side in the same cav- 
alry corps in the same army almost continuously from the 
beginning to the end. I therefore had the best opportunities 
of forming a correct estimate of him as a soldier and man, and 
it is within the bounds of just judgment to place him among 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 93 

the most distinguished in that brilliant array of American sol- 
diers and men of that eventful period. 

I recall with vivid recollection my first association with him 
at Ashland, Va., in June, 1861, where he was stationed as a 
young captain of cavalry at a school of instruction. Thence he 
rose by regular gradations to major-general of division, resign- 
ing his sword with that rank. 

Gen. LEE never aspired to be what is sometimes called a 
41 dashing' 1 soldier. He was quite content with the serious, 
earnest, steady performance of his duties. It would be no com- 
pliment to say that a son of Robert E. Lee and grandson of 
"Light-Horse" Harry Lee had courage. Such a quality is a 
necessary ingredient of such a man's character. But his cour- 
age was not of that frothy, noisy kind so often paraded to attract 
attention. In battle he was as steady, firm, and immovable as 
any soldier who ever wielded a sword or placed a squadron in 
the field. In his relations to his subordinates he was the per- 
fection of military propriety, always considerate and kindly, 
but firm and impartial in the enforcement of discipline. 

Towards his equals and superiors in rank he bore himself 
with a knightly chivalry that at once commanded respect and 
confidence. How could he have been otherwise, descended 
from such a noble sire, with such an example of courtly dignity 
and untarnished manhood ? 

After the close of hostilities, having discharged his whole 
duty as he understood it with fidelity and courage, he retired 
to his native State, to his farm, and there, by the same quiet, 
honorable, manly course of conduct devoted himself to the 
duties of civil life, establishing by his example a standard of 
citizenship worthy the great Republic to which he renewed his 
allegiance. 



94 Address of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, on the 

The people of the Commonwealth of Virginia could not and 
did not permit a man of his exalted character, sound intellectual 
qualities, and safe, conservative judgment to remain in private 
life. His services and example were too valuable to the public, 
and he was called into the public service, first as senator in the 
State legislature, later into the lower House of Congress. 

There, as elsewhere, he soon took rank among the wisest 
and safest legislators in the body pursuing the even, modest 
tenor of his way with that faithful regard for his duty to his 
constituents and his country that characterized every relation 
and position of his life. 

Those of us, Mr. President, who were favored with his 
acquaintance recall with a respect bordering on reverence his 
commanding figure as he came in this Chamber, his courtly 
presence, his gentle bearing, persuasive conversation, amiable, 
respectful manners. The consciousness that we shall never see 
him again is a sad and depressing reflection, and a mournful 
reminder that it is only a question of time — how long mortal 
man can not foretell — when those of us who survive him must 
obey a similar summons, and disappear, as he has done, from 
the scenes of life forever. 

In paying tributes of respect and affection to departed friends 
I know how hard it is to impose restraint upon our partiality 
for them and how strong the temptation to indulge in expres- 
sions of exaggerated eulogy. Knowing Gen. LEE as I did, I 
can say of him with absolute sincerity and truth that he was as 
free from the small and petty faults of our nature as any man I 
have ever known. In his private relations he was literally 
without guile or deceit. Straightforward, honorable, just in all 
his dealings, he was a model citizen and faithful friend. 

In his public life he proved himself equal to every station. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 95 

Zealous, attentive, conscientious, untiring, he met every re- 
sponsibility with fidelity and confidence. He never disap- 
pointed a friend, betrayed a trust, or took unfair advantage of 
an opponent. In a word, Mr. President, he lived a perfect 
gentleman, discharged faithfully every duty of life, and died 
honored and beloved by his friends. 

Others have spoken of the life and character of this distin- 
guished man more in detail, more eloquently, with more fin- 
ished oratory, but I yield to none in the sincerity of my humble 
tribute to his memory. 



ADDRESS OF MR. DOLPH, OF OREGON. 

Mr. President: The echoes of the voices of those who> 
pronounced eulogies upon the life and character of the late 
distinguished Senator from Kansas have hardly died away in 
this Chamber, and we have again laid business aside to pay our 
tributes to the memory of a late honored member of the House 
of Representatives and a distinguished son of Virginia. 

These sorrowful occasions, which are deprecated by some 
as involving a loss of the time of the Senate and needless 
expense to the Government, I can not think are unprofitable to 
us or to the country. Surely in the mad rush and hurry of 
business we may be permitted to halt long enough to take 
notice of the invasion of our ranks by death and to voice our 
esteem for a departed member. The death of an eminent mem- 
ber of the Senate or of the House is not only a loss to his 
immediate constituency, but to the whole country, and, m 
accordance with a long and honored usage, demands from his 
former associates formal and appropriate action. 



96 Address of Mr. Dolph, of Oregon^ on the 

After such an hour spent in the contemplation of the com- 
mon end of all that live, in introspection and retrospection, 
who of us does not again take up the burdens of life with 
renewed resolutions to redouble our energies to faithfully 
discharge every public and private duty. 

My acquaintance with Mr. L,EE was not intimate. I fre- 
quently met him socially, but he did not belong to the party 
with which I am affiliated, and no fortuitous circumstance oc- 
curred to bring us together in the discharge of public duties. 
The incidents of his life, his public services, and his domestic 
relations have been fittingly alluded to by others, and it only 
remains for me to cast an evergreen upon his grave, to add my 
poor tribute to his memory, and give expression to the emo- 
tions awakened by the occasion and the exercises of the hour. 
Coming from a long line of distinguished ancestors, serving 
with marked distinction in the Confederate army until the 
cause he championed was hopelessly lost, honored by the peo- 
ple of his State by election to high civil positions, in which he 
did credit to himself and honored them with a rounded char- 
acter and well-developed manhood, at once the incarnation of 
gentleness, tenderness, and courage, it is not to be wondered 
at that sorrow for his death hung over his State like a funeral 
pall, and all parties vied with each other in giving expression 
to the universal sense of private and public loss. 

He was the son of a distinguished sire, who in life was the 
idol of the people of Virginia; but he was held in the highest 
esteem by the people of his State not so much on account of 
his illustrious father as on account of his own ability and 
worth. His public services and his blameless life, touching, 
tender, and beautiful, won the tributes to his memory pro- 
nounced by his colleagues at the other end of this Capitol. 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 97 

Fortunate, indeed, is the man who can win such admiration 
from his associates. 

What higher eulogy can be pronounced on any man than 
that in every station, public and private, he was true to him- 
self and faithful to the people and was equal to the duties of 
his station ? Not every man can become great ; genius is the 
gift of the few, but goodness and fidelity to duty are within 
the reach of all. He has gone the way of all the living. He 
has found the level of the grave. Our words of eulogy can 
not reach him there. 

Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, 
Or flatt'ry soothe the dull, cold ear of death? 

Solomon, summing up this question, said : 

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither 
have they any more a reward ; for the memory of them is forgotten. 

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished ; neither have they 
any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. 

To human reason the death of him we mourn was untimely. 
He was born May 31, 1837, and died October 15, 1891. He 
was therefore in the prime of manhood, and apparently had 
many years of useful life before him. But death sometimes 
strangely selects his victims. No season, no station, no age is 
exempt from his fatal shafts. When death comes to the aged 
as the end of a fully completed life we regard it as natural. 
But when death comes to the young, the gifted, and the prom- 
ising, we with our finite vision look upon it as sad and myste- 
rious. We are constantly reminded that — 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour. 

The paths of glory lead bu : to the grave. 

H. Mis. 320 7 



98 Address of Mr. Dolph, of Oregon, on the 

It is creditable to our humanity that at the grave animosities 
are buried, and those whb speak of the dead remember their 
virtues and pass over their frailties. 

Death is a mighty mediator. There all the flames of rage are extinguished, hatred 
is appeased, and angelic pity, like a weeping sister, bends with gentle and close embrace 
over the funeral urn. 

The reconciling grave swallows distinction first that made us foes; there all lie 
down in peace together. 

To the grave, "the world's sweet inn from pain and weari- 
some turmoil," we are all hastening. Earth's highest station 
and meanest place ends in the common receptacle to which we 
shall all be taken. Dark and gloomy indeed would be the 
grave without a hope in a personal immortality, a belief that 
the soul survives the body, and that to this immortal part the 
tomb is the gate to heaven. When one feels like Theodore 
Parker when he said: 

When this stiffened body goes down to the tomb, sad, silent, and remorseless, I feel 
there is no death for the man. That clod which yonder dust shall cover is not my 
brother. The dust goes to its place; man to his own. It is then I feel my immor- 
tality. I look through the grave into heaven. I ask no miracle, no proof, no reason- 
ing for me; I ask no risen dust to teach me immortality. I am conscious of eternal 
life. 

Or like Byron when he wrote: 

I feel my immortality oversweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peal, 
like the eternal thunders of the deep into my ears this truth — thou livest forever! 

Death loses its terrors and the grave becomes a welcome goal 
for weary and buffeted mariners on life's stormy sea — the gate 
to endless life. 

By these oft-repeated scenes in this Chamber; by the fre- 
quent visits of the stern messenger to both Houses of Congress 
to summon a member from his field of labor here to the bar 
of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe above; by the constant 
changes going on around us in obedience to the inevitable law 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 99 

of nature, by which death everywhere succeeds to life, we are 
reminded that we shall not long continue as we now are. It is 
possible that as we are startled by the announcement of the 
death of an associate we mentally ask ourselves, Who will be 
called next? 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 



Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 

Mr. President: The late Gen. William H. F. Lee was con- 
spicuously connected with the public affairs of his State for more 
than thirty years. He was deservedly honored, loved, and 
trusted by the people. For two terms he represented the Eighth 
district of Virginia in Congress and he was elected for a third 
term, but when Congress met in December last his chair was 
vacant. Surrounded by his beloved family and bemoaned by 
all who knew him he peacefully breathed his last at Ravens- 
worth, his home, in Fairfax County, on the 15th day of Octo- 
ber, 1891. 

Thus, Mr. President, disappears one singularly endowed with 
the qualities that win the confidence and affections of man- 
kind. His noble, honest face, beaming with intelligence and 
benevolence, was a true index to his nature. Strength of char- 
acter and sweetness of disposition made him a man of mark 



100 Address of Air. Daniel, of Virginia, on the 

and influence in all the relations of society. His life was full 
of noble uses. Respect for the rights and tenderness for the 
feelings of others stamped his conduct on every occasion. He 
fulfilled Sidney's definition of a gentleman, "high thoughts 
seated in a heart of courtesy, ' ' and I know of no better legacy 
that a father could leave his household or a patriot leave his 
country than such a record as he has left to attest his virtues. 

I will not penetrate the sanctity of the home bereaved by 
his death. The fond and noble wife and the sons who miss 
the husband and father, who was representative to them of 
life's dearest boons, have in his memory whatever earth can 
give them of consolation, and they learned from none more 
than from him to look above in sorrow and affliction. 

As a Representative in Congress Gen. LEE was diligent in 
the service of his constituents and in behalf of policies which 
commended themselves to his favor. He seldom spoke, but it 
was not because he could not speak weli and forcibly. He was 
not noted as the peculiar champion of any of the great measures 
before Congress, but it was not because he did not comprehend 
them nor take great interest in them, and I doubt if there be 
many Representatives who have had a more wholesome or fur- 
ther-reaching influence. 

His fine character and engaging manner made friends for him 
and for his people. His excellent judgment had great weight 
in council, his political ideas were eminently liberal, and his 
tact and attention reached results where perhaps more aggres- 
sive qualities would have been ineffectual. On one occasion 
that I recall he was urging the passage of the bill to pay for 
use and occupation of the Theological Seminary near Alexan- 
dria during the war. He became the mark, in doing so, of 
inquiry and badinage, and some one, meaning to disparage the 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 101 

claim by intimation that the clerical professors of the institu- 
tion had been enemies of the Government, called out to him, 
"How did they pray?" He answered instantly, " For all sin- 
ners. " His ready pleasantry put everybody in good humor 
and the bill was passed. 

Gen. LEE was a representative man in a larger sense than 
that of official designation. He was a representative country 
gentleman, and the flavor of his native soil was in his character. 
He was born in the country, at beautiful Arlington, with the 
woods and fields and streams and mountain vistas around him. 
He lived in the country all his life, and died in the country, at 
his home in Fairfax County, an owner of land, loving the land; 
his home, a fine old country seat of colonial pattern, the scene 
of domestic peace and love and hospitality; his voice, that of 
the good people of his vicinage; his life, daily tasks, intermin- 
gled with daily studies and contemplation; his aims, those of 
the patriot and Christian, his country, God, and truth. 

Gen. LEE was a representative American of broad gauge and 
vision. Many of us — and I have felt myself amongst them — are 
quite provincial. We know our own neighborhoods and their 
people, and we grow slowly into knowledge of other sections 
and their people. Local caste, prejudice, interest, and bias warp 
us and minify our usefulness. Gen. LEE was not of this kind. 
There was no sectionalism in his caste, no bigotry in his creeds. 
His strong local attachments, natural to a true nature, neither 
dwarfed his opinions, soured his reflections, nor darkened his 
vision. His was a ripe mind and his a generous nature. He 
understood men, because he understood mankind. He had re- 
spect for all men, because he respected manhood. He dealt con- 
siderately and justly with all men of all races, creeds, opinions, 
and aspirations, because he respected men and because he had a 



102 Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia, on the 

good man's sympathy, with the hopes of his race, his country, 
and humanity. 

I would not speak of him as a brilliant man. He was more. 
He was a wise and good and true man. Gen. LEE was a repre- 
sentative of our racial history. The story of his family began 
when his remote ancestor rode with the Norman knights at 
Hastings. Another led a company of English volunteers with 
Cceur de Lion on # the third crusade to the Holy Land, and was 
made the Earl of Litchfield. Still another was that Richard 
Lee who, intense loyalist as he was, became a commissioner 
from Virginia and urged Charles II to fly for refuge to the Old 
Dominion when his throne was trembling under him. Quarrel 
and fight as we may and as our fathers did before us, the con- 
tinuity of race achievement is unbroken. 

The growth of race ascendency and the expanse of race domi- 
nation are unceasing. The picture is unique and the nation one, 
however the theater enlarges, however the scenes shift, how- 
ever the actors differ in the drama. Gen. LEE was a represent- 
ative democrat or republican, for I use the words in their generic 
sense. His grandfather was that young American Capt. Henry 
Lee, the ardent youth of nineteen, who at the head of his com- 
pany of Virginia horse reported to Washington for duty when 
the first arm}' of Continentals were ranging themselves upon 
the plains of Boston. He was the first to break the record of 
his line for loyalty to the Crown of England in espousing the 
cause of American independence, the first to draw his sword 
for the new king proclaimed at Philadelphia — the sovereign 
people. 

As "Light-Horse Harry" Lee he goes down to history and 
renown; distinguished in general orders of the army and in 
promotion from Congress for one exploit, and for another with 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 103 

the thanks of Congress and a gold medal. In statesmanship as 
in soldiership, he was the friend and follower of Washington. 
In the Virginia legislature, when the resolutions of 1798 were 
debated, he took sides against them, and in his speech you may 
find nearly all the arguments which are used in favor of the 
Federal construction of the Constitution. When Washington 
died he was a member of Congress, and pronounced upon him 
the memorable words, "First in war, first in peace, and first in 
the hearts of his fellow-citizens." He was one of those virile 
men who could write, speak, and fight. 

When Gen. Winfield Scott led the American Army to Mex- 
ico there rode by his side Capt. Robert E. Lee, the son of 
Henry Lee, an officer of engineers upon his staff. He was four 
times brevetted for gallant conduct and came back famous. 
When Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston led the Utah expedition in 
1858 there marched on foot in his columns Lieut. William 
Henry Fitzhugh Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee. He was 
not a soldier by education, but by instinct. A graduate of 
Harvard College and the stroke oar of his class, he was well 
prepared for military life, and the third of his line to bear arms 
for the United States. But no war ensued ; the canker of a long 
peace was settling on military aspirations. 

Lieut. LEE resigned, married, and settled on his farm, the 
White House, on the Pamunkey. With the prattle of little 
children around his knees and pastoral scenes before him, his 
prospects were those of domestic tranquillity and joy. 

What a rush was there to the standards when war broke out in 
1861! Americans acted like Americans. They divided in con- 
viction. They did not differ as to the method of dealing with 
conviction. To divide was the propulsion of conditions, to fight 
the law of blood. Not one of the Lees had provoked war, but 



104 Address of Mr. Daniel, vf Virginia, on the 

not one stood back. The whole family of Lees became repre- 
sentative soldiers of their people; Gen. Robert E. Lee com- 
manded the greatest of the Southern armies and his brother 
became an admiral of the Southern navy. His sons and 
nephews were soldiers and sailors. 

The nephew of Northern identity kept place with the North. 
The more numerous class of Southern identity kept place with 
the South ; the boy, a private in the ranks or cadet on ship- 
board, the young men leading companies and regiments and 
winning brigades and divisions, the sire and chief commanding 
all. Their names are interwoven with war's dread story and 
splendid deed. Not one had any reproach ; not one struck a 
blow below the belt. The woman, the child, the captive found 
a fortress in the hand of Lee, the foeman met his peer. The 
history of two continents and many centuries was written over 
again on fields of blood. 

William H. F. LEE raised a company of cavalry at the begin- 
ning of the war and surrendered as a major-general of cavalry at 
(\ppomattox. He fought his way to his rank and suffered all 
ii war's vicissitudes save death. His men believed in him and 
followed him. He was wounded; he was twice a prisoner; he 
was held as a hostage in solitary confinement with death im- 
pending. His wife and his children died while he lay wounded 
and in prison. Whatever man may suffer he suffered to the 
uttermost. Amongst his first acts when he emerged from 
prison was to visit, shake hands with and congratulate the 
Federal officer for whom he had been held as hostage. He was 
a representative Christian, void of vindictiveness and uncom- 
plaining; he made no outcry of pain; he sealed his lips to 
reproach. 

I knew him well, respected him profoundly, and loved him 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 105 

dearly. I have often heard him speak at gatherings of old 
soldiers and on a variety of occasions; sometimes those of tur- 
bulence. I have marveled at his self-poise and reserved 
power. Never once did I hear him say ill of any man, nor 
allude to his own sufferings or deeds, nor utter words of bitter- 
ness. He took his lot as it came to him, as a man who does 
the best he can and leaves the rest to the Disposer of events. 
His conscience and his human sympathy, like his soldiership, 
were instincts, and his Christian creed was the sum of his 
intuitions. Gen. IyEE was a representative of the times in 
which he lived, eccentric in no opinion, even-tempered, wise, 
cautious, prudent, steadfast, and gentle; he sought to be useful 
rather than to shine. He took deep and active interest in all 
that concerned his State. 

As a State senator he could be relied upon to support liberal 
and progressive measures; as president of the State Agricultural 
Society he did much to excite interest and develop improve- 
ments; as a trustee or visitor to educational institutions he 
rendered valuable practical service to the cause of popular 
enlightenment. In political life he had sharp contests; friend 
was surprised and opponent discouraged when emergency 
brought forth the reserve forces of his character and ability. 
If modesty cloaked his powers in retirement, opposition elic- 
ited them; and the fluency, tact, and ability with which he 
discussed issues and met exigencies were remarkable in one 
whose experiences of early life had separated him from civil 
pursuits and training. 

If I have spoken of Gen. Lee's ancestral distinctions, it was 
not because either he or his people have ever presumed upon 
them. On the contrary, no people whom I have ever known 
have rested less of claim upon their antecedents or less sought 



106 Address of Mr. Daniel, of Virginia, on the 

to substitute reminiscences for achievements. The independent, 
honest, and simple Republicans and Democrats of our country 
justly despise a pretender who boasts the shadow of a name; 
but that of which the individual may not boast becomes his 
country's pride; and I count it great glory to our country that 
its institutions have nourished and the highest characteristic 
of our race that it has produced successive generations of men 
who preserve the continuity of sterling virtues. I count also 
as the star of hope for this grand Republic that a distin- 
guished soldier of a lost cause becomes the beloved statesman 
of the cause that won, and finds around him the old-time 
comrades and old-time foes, all his friends and each other's 
friends united in the service of our common country. 

No nobler words have been spoken of the late Gen. LEE than 
by soldiers who fought against him, and I respond to them with 
honor and praise. The production of men who may maintain 
the rights their fathers won, and ever grow in liberal thought, 
noble character, and worthy achievement is the highest mis- 
sion of republican institutions. From Hastings, A. D. 1066, to 
Boston in 1776, the name of Lee was blended with the glories 
of our fatherland. But from Boston to Appomattox it grew 
the more illustrious with grander opportunities. Victorious 
through a track of eight hundred years to the 9th of April, 1865, 
it has been still more victorious since — rising to the height of 
harder trials and sterner tasks and grander duties than those of 
leading embattled lines. The glorious nation of which he was 
a type and the glorious band of which he was the son come 
forth from ruin and desolation on one side, moved by gracious 
institutions and magnanimous sentiments upon the other, tak- 
ing their place in the reunited columns of parted friendship, 
cementing anew by adaptive virtues the broken ties, marching 



Life and Character of William H. F. Lee. 107 

again with the mutual magnanimities of companionship at the 
head of column. 

If a race that has won liberty and made it a birthright lets it 
slip away through hands of weakness or deeds of folly, and if 
the self-made man of to-day loses the vantage ground of his 
life work with his fleeting breath, the careers of nations would 
be brief, the story of liberty would be a nurse's tale, and the 
careers of individuals would be vanity of vanities. The pre- 
potent blood that made an empire of an insignificant island 
and stamped its language and its laws upon it made also here 
the most splendid Republic of the earth out of a savage wilder- 
ness and assimilated to itself all tributaries. That Republic 
delegates its unfinished tasks to a posterity that will lift higher 
the monuments of its greatness and strengthen the foundations 
of its endurance; and in the lives of Gen. L,EE and those of his 
worthy compatriots of all sections who unite as friends the 
moment conditions cease that made them foes, I see exempli- 
fied the noblest qualities of our kind and read the auguries of 
prolonged peace, progress, happiness, and stability. 

The Vice-President. The question is on agreeing to the 
resolutions submitted by the Senator from Virginia. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously, and under the 
last resolution the Senate (at 4 o'clock and 20 minutes p. m.) 
adjourned until Monday, March 7, 1892, at 12 o'clock m. 



/A 



I BJa'12 



